I SEE LEAD PEOPLE

Valderia Ho! - Getting to Know Moran Part 3

2012-01-24T08:00:00.000-08:00

Following up on the home life of the Valderian Empire, I'd like to now shed some light on the predominant religion of the empire. Once again, these beliefs and customs do not extend into The Lyndermarkes nor due they comprise the entirety of all beliefs and practices throughout the eastern parts of Moran. There are certainly numerous cults and minor faiths found here and there, especially in The Baronies which were not always part of the Valderian Empire.

The Divinities

The human lands of continent of Moran is dominated by two prevailing religions, that of the baronies and that of the markes. The faiths are The Valderian faith, which is based around a seemingly endless collection of divinities and the religion of The Lyndermarkes.

The religion of the realm has no name of its own and is simply known as the Valderian faith. It includes a dozen or so central deities and countless minor demigods referred to as divinities. Most holy men of this religion do not dedicate themselves to a particular god or goddess but instead preach the religion as a whole, observing holidays and rituals as befits the time of year or occasion.

Tolerance is not a strong point of the Valderian way and clerics of this faith are reluctant to give any consideration to the beliefs of others. This is not to say that Valderian clerics are enemies of other faiths or that they have any ill will toward other faiths just that they have no place in their cosmology for others. It has been said that the Valderian way reflects the complicated society in which the people live in. The Valderian faith is presided over by a maternal sea goddess, Mystrael, who rules the various facets of the Valderian world through the divinities, who represent the various key elements of the world. Divinities such as Ephimae, goddess of winds are prayed to for calm sailing weather while others like Demesna are asked for a rich harvest. Beneath such deities are countless minor deities of place, function and occasion. These saints are associated with nearly every element of day to day life and are called on for everything from good marks in school to finding the right boy to take to the country dance.

Most houses have private altars to their favorite or patron demigod saints as well as numerous icons for the more prominent deities of the faith. Children are blessed before these altars. Marriages and funerals are conducted in temples with full ceremony and it is not considered proper to conduct these events without the proper facilities and rituals performed by the proper holy men. Even in the rural areas there are temples devoted to the faith at which all important observances are carried out.

Those who cross the Valderian way are frowned on and often outcast from their families and polite society but that is usually the extent of any punishment meted out by the clerics of the faith. Severe transgressions against the faith are dealt with by the church itself and punishments, in these instances can range from expulsion from the realm, imprisonment, or even death. Though it is believed that they will do so, clerics of the Valderian way do not often wait for their gods to punish transgressors.

The relationship between the Valderian faith and the states of the realm is a tenuous one. Few princes and noble and not even The King will outright defy the church but few of them truly feel they are beholden to it either. Nobles and merchants often do their expected duties in the eyes of the church while carrying on a secular existence that is more detached from the teaching and beliefs of their faith. They are, however, careful to keep any inappropriate behaviors or actions either where they can be excused or where the church cannot prove anything with any surety.

The main interaction between the clerics and nobility of Valderia is in the sanctifying of their ranks and any important proclamations, dedications, or other pronouncements. Without the official recognition of the clerics of Valderia, no noble can be certain that the common folk will accept such rulings. In many cases such recognitions of state affairs are assured by generous donations to the local temples or by the promise of favors to clerics or their causes.

The center for Valderian religion is in the capital city of Daletres where the original shrine to Mystrael can still be found at the pinnacle of the modern altar in the Grand Temple of Mystrael. All cities in the baronies have a primary temple dedicated to Mystrael. These are either stand alone or part of a greater temple complex such as in Daletres where the temple complex is nearly its own township. Whether a part of a complex or also stand alone, there will then be numerous temples to other divinities with those most important to the city or barony being more grand than the others.

Off the coast of Lotressa there is a chain of islands known as the Entrails of Parassadore. These islands have been sacred ever since High Diviner Arnesto Ilcaba had a vision of The Great Divinity of The Sea, Parassadore. Since then the islands have been considered clerical lands and comprise a vast expanse of gardens, orchards and monasteries. Here the Sea Diviners have amassed the wealth of Valderian knowledge and insights into huge libraries. It is also here that the empire’s most advanced and well-crafted ships are built. The islands are also home to a navigator’s college where those willing to pay for the education can learn all the greatest secrets of sea navigation. ParassadorianLyndermarkes.

Valderia Ho! - Getting to Know Moran Part 2

2012-01-23T13:29:00.000-08:00

Today I'd like to share some general information on the humans of the Valderian Empire.

For the most part, the Kingdom of Valderia and the Seven Baronies all share a common culture, with the exception of the Barony of Karrmarke in the north which is culturally more like the Lyndermarkes. Each barony has it's own local character and customs, but the predominant culture reflect those norms exported from Valderia over the centuries of conquest and consolidation that have brought them all together. The Lynderrmarkes have their own distinct culture.

We will begin with home life and the character of the people of Valderia.

Home Life

Valderians are known for their love of life and their origin as merchants and traders has left them for a taste for the finer things. Cities and towns in Valderia are famous for their numerous open-air eateries, balconies and enclosed patios. Nearly every family home is built around a center garden patio where most meals and social gatherings are conducted. More well-to-do Valderians may have several of these, themed in different ways even having secreted patios accessible by hidden doors and passages. Such patios are known as “lover’s gardens” and are often used to carry on affairs that the rest of the family or community should not be privy to.

Household life in Valderia is known for its verve and the peoples’ zest for life does not stop at the portal to their homes. Patriarchal and fraternal in nature with fathers, brothers, uncles and sons taking up the pinnacle positions in the household. Despite this, it is wrong to assume that the women of Valderia are without power. No man alive in Valderia willingly invites the vengeance of an angry woman. In fact, Valderian women are known for their long-memories for transgressions against them and the ends to which they will go to meet out their revenge. But for the most part families of this land live harmoniously if not a bit raucous.

The average Valderian family consists of a mother and father and their 3-4 children. If alive, the parents of the father will live with him as will his unmarried sisters. It is not uncommon for a father’s bachelor brothers to live under his roof, but this is only until they can set out on their own, something that is greatly encouraged. Wealthier families tend to have fewer children, having learned long ago that too many heirs can make for a short life of any nobleman or merchant. Servants are employed by most upper class households with servants being paid a monthly wage or indentured for a predetermined period, often as recompense for some debt owed by themselves or their family. A typical household with servants will have two to three servants for every adult member of the household and an additional servant for every child in the house.

Outside the cities of this land, the rural people of Valderia live in a fashion similar to their urban brethren. Farmsteads are arranged around an open, cobbled courtyard, usually with a decorative but none-too-functional gate which is more often used as a trellis for grapes or berries. Servants are not employed by rural families as they often have extended families that are more than capable of fulfilling the needs of any individual household. Once again, fathers and their wives live under the same roof as their closest relations. Rural Valderians often have anywhere from 4-10 children per couple. One difference, in rural areas, is the tendency for married siblings and children to remain in or close to their family homes. It is not uncommon to add new buildings or rooms to existing enclaves when a brother or sister is married or has children. This ensures that the family stays close and maximizes the available labor of the family as a whole.

Villages in the outlying areas are collections of craftsmen and small mercantile families who provide services to their rural farming neighbors. These villages are also focal points for social gatherings among the rural folk as well as the locations for public markets. Public postings and any national business are also conducted in these villages and public posting boards display any communications from the state or local authorities. Villages do not maintain militias but all have some form of alarm system that can quickly communicate emergencies across a large area. Every farm and villa is expected to lend a hand to the common good when these alarms go off.

Valderia Ho! - Getting to Know Moran

2012-01-22T08:00:00.000-08:00

In the last post regarding my possible Valderian campaig, I showed off the map (above) and provided a few general notes on the continent. I'd like to now start a small mini-series within the main series filling in the specifics of the Valderian Empire as well as a bit of info on the continent of Moran.

Overview

The Empire of Valderia is an imperialistic nation that occupies the vast majority of the continent Moran on which it is found. Born from the wealthy merchant state of the same name, The Kingdom of Valderia now controls either directly, or through treaty, all of the neighboring human states. These states comprise the Seven Baronies, the three Markes of the Lyndemarke, as well as the settlement frontier of Westholde. Though not an official state, there is also a region of military holdings, mercenary camps and warlords known as The Marchlands.

All the people of the baronies, with the exception of those from Karmarke, share a common ethnic heritage though there are four distinct sub-groups: Valdar, Spesian, Laventine and Cantolli. These four “tribal” groups are distinguished by linguistic character and minor cultural differences determined by their region. Nearly all folk of the baronies speak their own regional dialect as well as that of neighboring regions. The Laventine people of the Barony of Isletres are the most distinct of the peoples, having a refined culture of grace and gentility that exceeds the pomp and courtly corpulence of Valderia. All nobles of the baronies speak Valdar as a requirement of courtly manner.

Westholde and The Marchlands are a hodgepodge of languages, dialects and jargon. The islands of Carascossa are technically part of the Barony of Carvossa and therefore Spesian even though their population is a rough mix of all peoples.

Lyndermanne or “Markers”, as they are often referred to with some disdain, are a distinct group of hearty men hailing from the north. They speak a different family of languages than those from the Baronies. Even the men of Karmarke still speak Lynderthal even though most of the nobility of that barony now speaks Cantolli and Valdar. It should be noted that Lynderthal varies little from group to group due to strict social and religious strictures on language and its use.

To the west of these lands is a region populated by various humanoid tribes, clans and even kingdoms. Orcs, bugbears, hobgoblins and goblins all have their regional territories though there are few formal borders or recognized boundaries other than traditional territorial considerations.

Hope you enjoyed this first peak at the makeup of the Valderian Empire and its neighbors.

Take care,

-Eli

Valderia Ho! - A Good Places To Start

2012-01-20T22:05:00.000-08:00

The map below shows a brief and simple map of the continent of Moran where can be found the Valderian Empire, or Valderia as it's more commonly called, and it's immediate neighbors. This map really only exists for background purposes, providing a map of possible places from which the player's characters might hail from.

I assume that most of the players will be playing Valderian humans from either Valderia itself of one of the seven baronies that fill out the empire. Alternately, they might choose to be of The Lyndemarkes as a foreign fortune-seeker or perhaps one of the simpler folk of the Westholde seeking a fortune he did not find in that land of promise. I hope at least one of the players will decide to make an orc character.

Most orcs on Moran are found outside the empire. in Winterskarre, Blackholde, and in the uncivilized Westholde. They live as savage tribesmen and small nations of unified tribes and clans but there are still tens of thousands of them living within Valderian society. Most of the latter are the descendants of those clans and tribes that were conquered, destroyed or who capitulated to human expansion and consolidation.

There are also dwarves in Moran, but they are content to remain in their underground kingdoms for the most part and only really deal with the surface world for trade and occasionally politics. Still it is possible that a rare dwarf might set out for adventure alongside humans. Half-orcs do not exist. Neither orcs, nor humans will have them.

Moran has no native elves, halflings, or gnomes. These races do not even visit Moran in any measurable numbers as any of their population centers are far across the sea with much nearer trade ports available to them.

Hope you enjoyed this peak at the world from when the players shall come. I will share more of my plans in some future posts, including some information on the state of those usual of fantasy RPG suspects, the humanoids.

Take care,

-Eli

Valderia Ho! - Possible New D&D Campaign

2012-01-19T22:01:00.000-08:00

Well, it's time again. Once more into the breach my friends!

Yes, after some time away from the shuffling of character sheets I have decided to give running a D&D campaign another try. I am revisiting the world of my Homeland campaign setting but setting this tales in another continent an ocean away from the first Homeland campaign.

Enter Valderia!

Originally conceived of as the background behind a colony on the original Homeland continent, Valderia is a human empire roughly analogous to southern Europe during the Renaissance. I say roughly because it's really a mish-mash of images and constructs from that time blended with some fantasy. Valderia is an empire that has pretty much reached the limits of its conquest and consolidation on the continent it occupies. Now the Kingdom of Valderia and the seven baronies that make up the Empire must find new sources of trade and plunder the fuel their imperialist manifest destiny.

The campaign takes the form of the players embarking on one of the masses of expeditions across the sea in search of far-off lands known only in legend and rumor. The players will take on the roles of whatever dregs, villains, thugs, dreamers, and jingoistic adventurers seeking fortune in the name of the Empire and their own purse.

Here is a poster I did to introduce the campaign to my players...

Terrain Lab - More Pizza Box Fields

2012-01-08T13:06:00.000-08:00

15mm Battlefront WW2 German Paratroopers

A while back I posted a few experimental garden patches made out of the corrugated paper liners found in many delivery pizza boxes. I got mine from Pizza Hut and am not sure who else carries them. I've been planning to try to scale the gardens up a bit since then but until recently hadn't given it a go as I had misplaced my larger pieces of the corrugated paper.

20mm(1/72) Easy Model Prepainted BTR-80

Unfortunately, the piece that I found did have some flattened parts and a pretty deep score across it, but I decided to try it anyhow and to disguise these defects as best I could. I think the end result is pretty good and as the pictures show is usable in any scale from 15mm to 28mm without a lot of fudging needed.

28mm Wargames Factory Saxons converted to Vikings

The techniques used were the same as used in the initial smaller patches just spread out over a larger projects. I did find that the larger piece of cardboard did want to box slightly, however, after the series of spray sealer had dried I found the whole piece was quite flexible and easily bent back to where it would sit flat. You might need to repeat this a few times. As you use it, just give it a quick bend to flatten it. Over time it will stop trying to pull back.

Give it a try all you pizza-eaters out there!

-Eli

New Year

2012-01-04T20:00:00.000-08:00

2011 was not a very productive year in the hobby realm for me but not for bad reasons. the 2010/2011 stretch was marked by my move into the realm of sculpting and miniatures design and I think that took up a lot of my creative energies. Though I still managed to get a few bits done here and there and things have started to get back into the groove at the end of 2011, I really haven't found myself doing much of anything on the player/hobbyist side of things. I hope to rectify that in the new year.

Sculpting will certainly still take up a good chunk of my time and energies once again. I do not plan on giving it up any time soon and, in fact, may even have some real regular work on that front. I'm still growing and improving my craft and, more importantly, enjoying it. Then there is the design work I'm doing for Mad Robot Miniatures which I am very committed to.

But it is the gaming arena that I want to make some headway. I've got a lot of projects that are either in various states of completion (or lack there of) and I'd like to bring them to playable levels. I think that shall be the theme of this year. Completion.

15mm Scifi

I've got the starts of or the majority of the figures I need for several small units in this area. A few packs toward each will give me several squads to a platoon of any one force. What I am lacking are vehicles, so I think a few vehicles purchases are in order for the new year. Terrain is coming along for this genre already.

20mm Modern

I almost gave up on this one, if not for a few friends who convinced me that I was going in the right direction with this. I have plenty of armor and some APCs. What I need are more infantry, terrain and some soft skin vehicle options for scenario variety. I'll have even MORE armor if I can ever buckled down and assemble some of the plastic kits that I have.

28mm Wild West

More of a side project than anything, I need terrain for this. I'll likely break down and just invest in some card buildings and I have woods. Need cliffs and some rocky terrain to make it all come together.

15mm 18th Century Alcovia

This is a project I started right at the end of 2011 and promises to be fun. I'll be recreating the war of unification fought by the first king of Alcovia to unit the disparate people of the Alcovian Steppes into a nation state.

28mm Dark Ages

Chuggging away n Dark Ages scenery to use with my Vikings.

...By Their Cover

2011-12-21T15:57:00.000-08:00

Darned right I'll judge them. Judge them to be AWESOME!

My buddy Chuck at Portobello Road just keeps getting better and better with the craftsmanship on his handmade journals. What he can do with a hand full of paper, some leather and a burning tool is amazing. Each time I check them out I just see him getting better and better and with so much variety.

I've taken the liberty of posting a crap ton of images of the various finished and WIP books he's been doing. Many of these are custom work while others are simply the artistic expression of a talented craftsman and good friend.

Tis The Season

2011-12-19T19:39:00.000-08:00

A little light thought and a quick post to look at holidays in gaming.

I think all of us have tapped into the holiday vibe either directly or indirectly in our games. Whether it's a scenario that directly involves a specific holiday or something that simply taps into the vibe of the season games can benefit greatly from some holiday coating. How you go about depends on the intended effect.

Direct Involvement

In these sorts of games, the character/players are involved in the activities or folklore of the holiday. The holiday is not just a backdrop for the story, but is a good part of the story. Characters can be helping a holiday spirit accomplish its task, or are making sure that the local holiday is observed properly.

Examples of this would be delivering gifts for Santa, saving Santa from evil-doers, making sure the mid-winter hobgoblin is sufficiently bribed so that he will not interrupt the festivities. Whatever it is, the players and their characters will have some direct effect on the holiday.

Holiday Backdrop

What can I say? This is every Die Hard movie. The characters are undertaking action using the holiday as window dressing and/or a story factor. If the holiday is a factor in the events of the story it's usually in providing suitable obstacles to the adventure or game. Limited availability of help, local closures of services, or even limited movement due to the environment at that time of year. Perhaps the players have a time commitment and have to be home for the parade of the Elf King and his winter court.

This particular method is really a good way to establish character in a fantasy world. Holidays speak volumes about their parent cultures and you can get a lot of mileage out of featuring a holiday observance in your RPG campaign.

Holiday Feel

The holiday doesn't have to play into this at all, but the adventure evokes the feel or themes of a holiday. This is popular among gamers who like to run spooky horror games coinciding with Halloween, but could tap into other holidays. Superhero themed games are easy for this as you can have villains with holiday motifs and all sorts of holiday-inspired villainy.

Boxed Set Bliss

2011-12-12T20:17:00.000-08:00

My good buddy, Iken managed to score yet another awesome boxed set for me. This time it was the FASA Star Trek RPG deluxe set. All the books were in perfect condition though it was missing the Tactical Simulator rules. It still had unpunched, full color counters for the Simulator and the hex mat. There was a bonus inside and that was the "Next Generation Year One Sourcebook". A nice find indeed, though I would like to track down the big purple Next Generation book they did.

So nice to have the boxed set to go with the bits and pieces I already had.

-Eli

I Got Interviewed!

2011-12-06T16:39:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!

A little bit ago I received an email from Craig Andrews asking me if I'd answer a few interview questions as a new sculptor. I happily agreed and you can read my very first industry interview here on Orcs In The Webbe

http://orcsinthewebbe.co.uk/index.php/flintloque/miscellaneous/571-sculpting-a-qaa-with-eli-arndt

Thanks for reading!

-Eli

He's Got a Gun!Firearms in Fantasy Settings

2011-11-30T08:00:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I know it's been talked about before, but I was thinking about this on the drive home the other day and figured it might be worth blogging about.

There seems to be an overwhelming feeling among fantasy RPGers that if you bring a gun to a sword fight you will somehow ruin the game. Various reasons are given ranging everything from "realism", through period accuracy, and on through game balance and cross-genre pollution. While it is understandable that folks may not want guns in their games, there is nothing mechanically to fear from them and even the various thematic arguments do have a few valid arguments against them.

Mechanically speaking, a gun is just a weapon. Setting aside auto-loading guns and sticking with more archaic firearms, there is little that makes an arquiebus or musket any more useful to an adventurer than a crossbow. Though the damage output is likely to be higher, most RPG weapons still inflict proportionately low damage in their respective systems than they would in real life. In many ways a firearm could almost be seen as the two-handed sword of the missile weapons set, inflicting a higher level of damage in its role.

The high damage output of a firearm is balanced out by the slow and fiddly reloading method. Unless you fantasy firearms wielder is blessed with the early invention of all-in-one ammunition, he'll have to spend a good bit of time between shots. This may not be much longer than a heavy crossbow, but there are many more components to this that all must be coordinated in a veritable ballet of finesse and efficiency. While the archer needs only pull an arrow from his quiver, nock, and draw it back, the musketeer must maneuver his weapon, shot, wadding, powder and primer this way and that, all the while removing his weapon from an aiming position. Even the crossbowman, who must also take his weapon out of an aiming position need only get his bow cocked and then grab his next bolt.

In pure mechanical terms, this all sounds like a matter of degrees but if you consider that weapons in RPGs are intended for adventurers, operating in small groups and fighting in skirmish type engagements, thee practicality of a musket suffers greatly. While their are historical precedents for the use of archaic firearms in skirmish engagements, these were still with groups of like armed men fighting in some form of drill and supported by other men fighting in a similar style.

A warrior, armed with a musket in a dungeon delve is unlikely to benefit from other firearm equipped adventurers. In addition, the smoke and noise of his shots is likely to prove distracting and hindering to others in his party. With their visibility obscured and the roar of a boom stick in their ears, a party may find spells difficult to use, and a lacking in the coordination and communication that the close quarters of dungeon combat would require. One or two shots and the already claustrophobic passage will now be choked with smoke as the orcs close range.

But Eli, what about pistols?

Pistols seem like the adventurer's best firearm. Lighter, more compact, and able to be carried in braces of multiple pistols, the pistol really is the choice firearm for the dungeon dweller. Sure the smoke and noise will still be a problem, but at least the reloading issues are minimized by the ability fothe warrior to carry a couple of pistols that he can fire early in the fight and then either fight with them as clubs or put them aside to fight with melee weapons, saving reload time for after and between fights. While the wizard is memorizing, the cleric is busy healing the fighter and the thief is distracted trying to steal gold from the party, the pistolier can be busy cleaning and reloading his braces of pistols.

Next time I'll look at the thematic, role-playing, and setting aspects of firearms as I see them.

Thanks for reading,

-Eli

One Pose - Many Characters

2011-11-28T18:56:00.000-08:00

One of the neat perks of submitting miniatures to 15mm.co.uk's SHM miniatures line is getting multiple casts of the figures you have created. This has left me with quite a few extras of the aliens I sculpted for them and given me a great opportunity to convert some these extras into new and interesting characters suitable for use in games like Blasters & Bulkheads.

To get on a soap box for a moment, there has often been criticism of miniatures ranges for not providing enough options for miniatures gamers. This is true in some cases and complete bunk in others. Regardless of how many poses a particular line offers, I think these following pictures will demonstrate how the same basic figure can be used to create a range of interesting and useful characters.

In the above pictures you will see several characters built off of the basic Vergan (far left) sculpt I did for 15mm.co.uk. This tentacled fellow seems an unlikely miniatures for a range of characters which is exactly why I decided to work with him first. To the right of the basic alien are. from left to right, The Commander, heavy weapon, trooper, laborer, and musician. None of these of these required more than basic putty pushing skills and a little time.

The weapon-armed Vergans presented the most extensive conversions, but that is because I also made their guns. Basic weapon forms were affixed to the miniatures and then given added detail and limb extensions to make it all come together. Ammo packs, straps and equipment harnesses were added using a number of simple shapes and basic pouch-making techniques. The Commander was done with similar techniques to achieve his extensive utility harness. The laborer, had the drum pinned to his chest with basic drilling and pinning techniques and then his tentacles extended so they looked to be lifting/holding the cargo. The musician was achieved by a basic putty shape that was allowed to harden before details were added.

The Horansi aliens are another one that really captures my imagination. With their long arms they offer a number of opportunities for limb rearrangements though all of the merchant satchels, backs, packs and pouches on the original figure did pose a challenge for prospective conversions. The three figures above show three levels of putty work.

The alien on the far left above, was converted from simple merchant, festooned with baggage to a more technical looking character by covering over his cluttered mess with more orderly looking tool packs and a backpack (unseen). The above middle alien is a companion to the Vergan musician and was given a curious alien cross between a tuba, oboe and bagpipe. Arm adjustments and more advanced putty work, including a wire structure for the instrument were used for the musician. The Horansi to the right above is a rather extensive conversion featuring the addition of a young Horansi at its feet, a new hand, a cloak/shawl, and a staff. And interesting note about all the above aliens is that I have done nothing to change the posture of their main bodies but they all seem to be standing in different ways. This was accomplished more by how they were mounted on the base and the clever propping this way or that by the putty under their feet.

Another simple technique, besides the application of putty techniques is to set your figures up in little vignettes that paint them in a different light. The top Horansi is stock from the mold and placed amid a collection of precast Peter Pig weapons/supply cache pieces from their Vietnam range. The lower alien, besides his new hat and cape (he's a styling merchant) has only had a simple limb adjustment and has been placed amid more of the same sort of cache bits, in this case munitions and weapons crates. Placed in a spaceport or market scene, they would add a touch of character to any game.

And remember, the force will be with you...always.

-Eli

My Sculpts Painted! (Not By Me)

2011-11-27T21:06:00.000-08:00

One of the coolest things about sculpting is getting to see your work in production. What's even cooler though is seeing that other people are using and enjoying your creations. The picture above features the painting work of a talented gent who goes by Blackstone over at the Starport Crash blog. Of the seven aliens, three were sculpted by me - Fragalian (1), Horansi (4) and Vergan (5). He did an amazing job on what I consider my very humble sculpts and manages to make them look right at home alongside other more skillfully rendered miniatures.

Not only is it a treat to see these figures painted, but I also love seeing how he interpreted the aliens. When I sculpted each of them, I had a vision in my mind, at least to some extent, of how they would look. Blackstone managed to surprise me on the Horansi. This particular alien was given a very odd, hodge-podge of features - triple tentacles for feet, long fingered arms, a fussy or porous neck, and a cobra-like hood. Facial features were a bit vague with only eyes for any obvious facial features. I did this on purpose to make the alien seem even more so.

Where Blackstone surprised me on the Horansi was in painting the pointy front of the hood as a beak, something i hadn't conceived of. Having seen it this way, I cannot imagine it any other way. That and his brightly colored skin and chest ruff have put a new spin on this alien for me. I'll likely end up using the beak idea when I paint mine.

Below is a picture showing how the painter for 15mm.co.uk, the manufacturer of my sculpts, interpreted the aliens.

They May Take Our Thighs!!!

2011-11-24T09:14:00.000-08:00

Turkeys Standing Up For Themselves

2011-11-23T17:10:00.000-08:00

This year I ended up having to work on Thanksgiving. This is kind of a bummer as I won't get to be with my family. At least the company feeds us a really good meal and we get some serious holiday pay for it all, so there are worse things.

The general humbug of it all has not dulled my usual good spirits however and I have taken to drawing some fun pictures of turkeys standing up for themselves. Poor sods, they don't know how doomed they are.

We few, we happy few, we band of gobblers;
For he today that sheds his blood with me
Shall be a gobbler; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And other birds on The Farm now in their nest
shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their giblets cheap (about $0.50/pound) while any speaks
That fought with us upon Thanksgiving Day.

CROM - Playtest Pics

2011-11-03T17:53:00.000-07:00

Just a quick image dump of some pics from Tuesday night's platest of CROM. Nothing too spectacular. I'm still painting minis and the terrain was just quickly setup to give us something to play around.

The board overall. Villains started on the side at the altar by the ruler.

Close up of the idol and worshipping barbarians.

Barbarian fanatic charges ahead of his minions at one of the two heroes.

Groovy Goulies

2011-11-02T17:46:00.000-07:00

No, not the cartoon, but my own groovy kids in their Halloween costumes.

My two daughters in this year's costumes. My oldest is the one crouched down in classic Wolfman splendor while my youngest is doing her best to look like a dark Mistress of the Night with a faithful minion.

Both costumes are made up of thrift store buys and what was laying around with the exception of the spirit gum and prosthetic ear points and teeth for the Wolfman. Wolfman face paint/makeup by yours truly. Lots of blending and shading just like painting a mini!

-Eli

CROM - First Playtest

2011-11-01T21:39:00.000-07:00

I finally got a chance to run a non-solo game of CROM. Thanks to my buddy Derek I was able to get a quick game in with the intention of giving the stock CROM rules, as published by Paul over at Matakishi's Tea House, a good play before continuing to modify the rules with additional house rules.

The set-up was really simple. A woodland on the edge of a river. In the woods, a bestial warrior and his six warriors (in two minion groups) vs. a 12 Dice hero and a 10 Dice hero. The heroes managed to divide and conquer the minions pretty easily and unfortunately didn't take all that much damage in the process. By the time the villain, who has 10 Dice made it into combat with the heroes, he wasn't much of a match for them.

One observation that was made early in reading the rules was that minions seem to have the potential to really beat the crap out of heroes. Successfully maneuvered minions can force a hero to spend all of his allocated Combat dice on defense and end up left with none for attacking OR even worse leave him so short on dice that he ends up without any Combat dice left for even a defense roll, meaning in any combat he will automatically take at least 2 Dice of damage.

We decided to play test a combat engagement after the game to test this and in our dice off, a 12 Dice hero was dispatched in one turn by a group of three minions. Further testing may be needed to see if this is as easy to do as the test would indicate. I am also going to go over the rules and Paul's first play test scenario again to make sure that I'm not missing anything on how Minions operate.

Still have a lot of love for this system so far.

Take care,

-Eli

The Band Wagon...Sort of...

2011-10-29T09:02:00.001-07:00

With all the Internet buzz on the whole OWS thing, I decided to throw in my own piece of digital spam.

Enjoy!

A Brief Interlude

2011-10-27T20:21:00.000-07:00

Tired from his day of play

The emu seeks a snooze

His legs scream from his long hike

As he prepares to drink some BoooooOOOZE!

The Wife Returns With Gifts

2011-10-23T15:50:00.000-07:00

Wife got back from the National Massage Therapy Conference today bearing a few gifts. This year the event was held in Portland, OR where there is an amazing book store called Powells that occupies and entire city block. She was kind enough to pick up a few things off my wish list as well as a neat little treat.

Terrain Lab - New Potential Colony Buildings

2011-10-22T16:08:00.000-07:00

A recent trip to a local shop called Creation Station turned up the usual bits and bobs for adding details and texture to terrain projects as well s a few unplanned finds. Prime among these finds were a couple of types of small plastic boxes, originally used for some sort of medical testing equipment their outer appearance looks like a good start for a science fiction building.

Inside one of these types of boxes, I found a few useful extras. There is a holding rack as well as two removable dividers. Though the rack is not really suitable for 15mm (holes too big) it might make good decking for 28mm or perhaps even some sort of dungeon grating for 28mm fantasy. If anything, they could be used as the basis of some sort of platform with a new surface added on top.

The boxes are nicely hollow inside and the top section that would be the roof, is hinged to allow it to open. I am not sure this function would be able to remain after conversion into terrain, but if it were you could use the interiors for storage of miniatures or even detail the interiors of your buildings. There are some nice scifi arches and texturing that would lend well to an interior space.

The second kind of plastic box was less interesting that the other. Though the top comes off there really isn't a usable inside. The overall shape is very basic and usable for a building with the addition of a few basic features like doors and such. I only picked up one of this kind, so I didn't have a change to test if it would stack well or not.

If you have any local surplus junk shops or anything you may be able to find this sort of thing. At 2/$1 how could I pass them up? That's about 1/4 the cost of plastic electric junction boxes.

-Eli

CROM - Heroic Abilities

2011-10-17T21:11:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in a previous post, my gaming group found that CROM needed a bit more for us, especially if it was going to get some replay. The core mechanics of the game are solid enough, but the trouble we had was that other than a character's dice pool and miniature, there wasn't much to set one apart from the other. All 12 Dice characters would essentially be the same figure. To combat this we started looking into alternatives.

One thought I had was for a collection of Heroic Abilities that would be put on cards and selected by players when creating their heroes. These could be used for long-term play or for one-offs or ignored for simpler games. I am still working out how to allocate cards but the working formula is something along the lines of 1 card for every 4 dice in the character's pool, rounded down. Using this formula, more powerful characters will get more abilities to distinguish them. For example - Conan has 12 dice in his pool, allowing him a selection of three Heroic Ability cards while Red Sonja (10 Dice) and Subotai (10 Dice) would each receive only two cards (10/4 = 2.5. rounded down to 2).

As I am working on the Heroic Abilities, the majority of them fall into the combat categories. Mostly, this is because the majority of the game comes down to either Attack or Defense rolls. There are some movement abilities in the works, but movement is pretty straight forward with modifications for climbing, jumping and terrain. What there are very few of are cards that tap into the use of Special dice. This is very much due to the near total absence of good examples of Special actions in CROM. Magic falls under this category, but so far that is touched on only briefly concerning summoning and controlling creatures.

I've included a brief list of some of the Heroic Abilities I am considering for the game. Some of the modifiers tap into rules created either by myself or borrowed from Spacejacker's ground work which I happily borrowed (Thanks for the good work dude!). These may change as I play test them and in some cases there may seem to be similarities between abilities that are not so clear unless you have read the dice mechanics of this game.

MIGHTY FOE (Attack) +1d6 to attack rolls in melee

FOE CLEAVER (Attack) +1 automatic 6 to attack rolls in melee
CLEVER FIGHTER (Defense) +1d6 to defense rolls in melee
STALWART (Defense) +1 automatic 6 to defense rolls in melee
SWEEPING ATTACK (Attack) Attack two adjacent opponents in melee with one attack roll
FISTS OF STEEL (Attack) Unarmed attacks are made at no penalty
KEEN EYED (Attack) +1d6 to attack ranged attack rolls
DEAD SHOT (Attack) +1 automatic 6 to ranged attacks
TRICK SHOOTING (Attack) The hero does not require line of site to shoot at target. Cannot shoot through solid walls or obstacles but can shoot around corners and over linear obstacles.
BATTLE RAGER (Attack) If the hero slays an opponent in melee combat, he may do an automatic follow-up attack on a second opponent within 4 inches.
QUICK DEFENSE (Defense) Attackers do not get bonuses for multiple attackers
SHIELD BASHER (Attack) Can use shield as a second weapon for dual wielding bonus.
MISSILE DEFLECTION (Defense) +1d6 when defending against missile attacks.
HEROIC LEAP (Movement) +1d6 when rolling for jump moves
UNTOUCHABLE (Defense) +1d6 to all defense rolls
BATTLE CRY (Attack) -1d6 to opponent’s defense roll
UNFLINCHING (Defense) Attacks against this hero inflict 1 less hit.

In the above examples, you will notice each Heroic Ability name is followed by a parenthetical notation. This is not just an organizational notation, but I plan to use it to limit Heroic Abilities. I haven't decided how exactly, but it seemed a good up front measure to categorize the abilities by what dice pool they are designed to modify. One possible way to limit the use of these cards will be to place a cap on how many of one type of card a hero may have.

Lastly, I have also worked on a card layout for these cards. I picked a new piece of artwork to go on the card backs to set them apart from the existing cards which are used in the iinitiative deck. These cards will be held by the player using them.

Creepy Cavern Inspiration

2011-10-14T10:09:00.000-07:00

Sometimes all it takes to spark and adventure idea is a couple of cool pictures. While looking at pictures of caves and caverns, I came across the first picture to the right and couldn't help but think that it made a great spooky, but disturbingly unassuming entrance to something greater and more wicked below.

Looking further through the pictures I found the second image and got to thinking, "what if that not just a trick of lighting, but the natural color of that cavern?" With it's hanging stalactites, the red stone would look like dripping blood, a fitting place for a blood cult, a vampire, or even a pack of ghouls.

What sorts of adventures will you find there?

-Eli

Keep it Under Wraps - D30 Mummies

2011-10-13T13:04:00.000-07:00

Mummies. Classically depicted as foot dragging, dry-throated mutes with a grudge against the living, these creatures have undergone some very interesting changed in the last couple of decades. Where as a quick step and a sharp eyes would have been enough to escape the mummy of the past, today's mummy is fast, dynamic and often not just a guy in bandages with a serious mobility impairment. In movies and TV, the mummy has become a force to be reckoned with. Possessed of immense power of magic, items of power or even innate natural abilities, the modern mummy sometimes bears little resemblance to his silver screen ancestors.

As a solute to this new breed of mummy, I thought it would be fun to do a D30 chart for it. This chart is designed to provide various abilities and modifiers that can be overlayed onto the classic mummy write-up found in most D&D and similar systems from the OSR era.

Bestial. The mummy possesses physical characteristics of some sort of animal giving it appropriate natural attacks for that type of animal.
Humanoid. The mummy is not human or demi-human but some form of humanoid (orc, bugbear, goblin).
Giant. This mummy was created from some sort of giant humanoid and had physical modifiers and abilities consistent with that sort of creature. Regardless of special abilities, all giant mummies are +3 damage to all physical attacks.
Multi-limbed. Possessing an additional set of limbs, this mummy gains +1 attack.
Tauric. The lower body of this mummy is that of some sort of animal giving it appropriate abilities and movement for that that animal (burrowing, flying, swimming) as well as +1 attack.
Internal swarm. Nestled within the body of the mummy is a swarm of insects, arachnids, worms or other vermin. These creatures can be controlled by the mummy over great distances, functioning as spies and messengers as well as being used to attack opponents.
Built-in weapons. Those who made the mummy intended it as a guardian and as such bestowed upon it weapons made part of its body. All attacks made by the mummy now count as weapon attacks doing damage appropriate for the type of weapon.
Independent body parts. This mummy can detach its body parts and still use them.
Shapechanger. The mummy has the ability to change its shape at will as per the polymorph self spell.
Warrior. The mummy was a warrior in life and counts as a fighter of a level equal to his hit dice.
Wizard. The mummy is possessed of arcane skills giving him magic-user levels equal to his hit dice.
Demonic/Diabolic. The mummy's body is also a prison for a creature from the lower planes. In addition to the mummy's normal powers, it also possesses the powers and spell-like abilities of the demonic/diabolic creature trapped within.
Visage of vitality. Despite being a mummified corpse, the mummy has the appearance of life. This appearance is only skin deep however and wounds inflicted upon the mummy will reveal it's true nature.
Hypnotic effect. Something about the mummy has a hypnotic effect. Whether it is its gaze, voice, perhaps the sparkle of a jewel in its attire it can mesmerize those it comes in close contact with.
Animal control. The mummy has the natural ability to control the animals found in its environment.
Weather control. The power of the elements is are at the command of the mummy. Wind, rain, freezing cold, roasting heat, etc all may be summoned up in the home region of the mummy.
Life drain. This mummy possesses the same life level drain ability as a Wight.
Shadow walk. The mummy may move between any two shadows as if using a dimension door spell.
Mirror walk. The mummy may use mirrors and reflective surfaces to travel as if using a dimension door spell.
Dust form. The mummy can change to dust and fly through the air at will.
Arcane prison. The mummy's powers come from a supernatural being trapped within it. When the mummy is destroyed, the being is released.
Slime or fungus infested. In addition to the mummy's usual abilities, it's physical form has also become home to some form of slime, jelly, ooze, or other form of dungeon fungus.
Soul devourer. The mummy has the ability to pull the very soul from another being, trapping it within itself. This power works similar to a magic jar spell but the victim has no control over the fate of their soul. Destroying the mummy frees any trapped souls.
Elemental. The mummy possess natural control over a particular element with spell-like abilities to match.
Tomb control. The very walls and passages that entomb the mummy are at its command. The mummy may freely manipulate the structure that confines it, shifting passages, opening and closing doors, etc..
Regeneration. The curse that binds the mummy is so powerful that it will not even allow the physical form to be destroyed. The mummy heals 1d6 hit points of damage every round.
Toxic breath. The mummy may belch forth a cloud of poisonous gases that are lethal to the living.
Warded mummification. Those who mummified the creature imbued its wrappings, body markings or other mummification treatments with spell wards and protections.
Eldritch ally. The mummy is the thrall of some ancient, otherworldly, cthonic force and may manifest powers appropriate for that alien intelligence.
God corpse. This mummy is no mere mummy. It is the entombed avatar of a god.

CROM - A Fun Conan Skirmish Game From Matakishi

2011-10-12T20:21:00.000-07:00

I recently stumbled onto a new skirmish level miniatures game in development by the talented Paul Ward of Matakishi's Tea House fame. With the working title of CROM, the system provides a fast, simple play system using dice pools and the allocation of those dice for specific actions. Created for use in the fantasy world of Conan, the system is basic enough to be adapted to a number of settings and has already been morphed into Greek myth and pirate settings by Paul and other players.

Though the system is still in development, with rules for magic and scenario design, it is very much playable right now and I'm sure that Paul wouldn't mind folks putting it through its paces. One thing I noticed is that the game is definitely for those with love of the setting and the genre. Those who look to min/max systems or break them will likely find it easy to do so in this game that uses a very simple, flexible, and abstracted system.

Upon initial read we, myself and another guy from my gaming group, felt that the system was basic enough that it could even have a few more layers of detail added without overpowering the core mechanics or ruining play. For example, the game as written seems to use a WYSIWYG approach to the minis being played and does not have any specific rules for weapons or equipment. Also, there is little to set characters apart save their dice pools, something we felt might be remedied by a system of character traits providing modifiers to the basic game play. There is a distinct possibility that such things are already in the works, but as Paul has yet to release the finished product, that remains to be seen. Besides, I love tinkering with systems.

Check it out and give it a try, but make sure if you do to let Paul know how it went.

-Eli

15mm Science Fiction Terrain Junk Builds

2011-10-11T15:04:00.000-07:00

Like a lot of miniatures gamers, I spend a lot of time collecting this and that with the intention that "I'll do something with this someday". Also, like a lot of miniatures gamers, someday has a tendency to never quite come around. So, I decided to fix this.

I pulled out a bunch of bits and pieces of this and that and started cobbling together some science fiction terrain with a mind toward flexibility and modularity. In truth I've been tinkering with this stuff for a bit now, but only a little at a time. I've picked up few bits at the hobby store to add specific details but for the most part it's all junk or re-purposed store bought items like electrical junction boxes. (click on pics for bigger images)

Board game board, bits and bobs. GZG add-on bits thrown in for specific details.

A little base color brings it all together.

Large roll-up door and front entrance

Late addition of a double back door to the work yard

Oatmeal container + take home pie container + teriyaki bowl = tower

GZG large satellite dish on rattle can lid = comm/sat. Can be used alone or placed on top of another building.

Electrical junction box using GZG glue-on door, some textured plasticard, plastic canvas and plastruct stairs.

Give Some Kids Some Minis And...

2011-10-10T17:07:00.000-07:00

...they'll game with them!

I pawned most of a collection of Mage Knight plastics off on my two girls last weekend. Most of them went to my youngest who hasn't really had a chance to have her own minis, but some went to Anna, my older girl. Naturally she decided to game with them and got together with her buddy to play small skirmish on this homemade battle board. Note the bridge in the center made from stripped corrugated cardboard.

-Eli

A Haunting We Will Go - D30 Haunted House Effects

2011-10-05T19:07:00.000-07:00

In the last post I offered up a random chart for characterizing those odd abodes that you find in the world. This post is more along the lines of traditional hauntings and ghostly apparitions one might encounter in a haunted house. Some are minor atmospheric effects while others might constitute an encounter, hazard, or trap of some sort. Still others might be couple with an encounter to complicate matters for the characters unfortunate enough to find themselves in the house.

Disembodied whispers.
The giggling of small children fluttering through the air
Recitation of a poem, nursery rhyme or song emanating from beyond.
A sudden shuddering quake withing the floor and walls around you.
A phantom procession playing out some event.
Your path is crossed by a phantasm of a person.
A toy comes to life.
A toy or other personal item appears where it had not been before.
Paintings, tapestries, photos etc come to life, animating the events they portray in haunting or horrifying ways.
The rattling of chains.
The squeaking of a door or gate.
Lights dim and/or flicker.
Sudden drop in temperature to a bone-biting chill.
Phantom writing on the walls.
Blood, slime, mold, or some other disgusting stuff seeps from walls and/or ceilings.
Doors or windows disappear.
Door or windows appear where there were none before.
Sudden vertigo.
Hallways seems to lengthen on their own making it impossible to reach their end.
The sounds of something horrible coming toward you through the house.
Floors warp and wobble, making footing difficult.
A swarm of some sort of vermin spews forth from a door, cupboard, or out of the very floors and walls.
Body parts appear from the walls, floors, and/or ceiling with appropriate hazards (hands grab, mouths bite, eyes see).
Items attack.
A sucking wind pulls you toward a door or other opening.
A blowing wind forces against you, making movement difficult.
An item possesses you with the memories of its former owner.
A sudden, uncontrollable dread washes over you associated with some place or item in the house.
Food, flowers, or other perishables spoil and putrefy before your eyes.
Roll twice.

This is just what I was able to fit into a D30 table and is by no means intended to be an exhaustive

That Old House Down the Lane - D30 Spooky Houses

2011-10-04T09:42:00.000-07:00

Every town has one, sometimes more than one; that house at the end of the lane, at the top of the hill, back in the woods, or sometimes right next door. Even the most mundane of them get our imaginations racing. Rumors fly around the school yards and playgrounds, maybe even whispered from the corners of our own parent's mouth.

"Did you hear the story..."

"Don't go into that old house or else..."

"I heard that..."

These same sorts of places can easily be inserted into any game setting to add a bit of spice and local color or even as an entire adventure unto themselves. They don't all have to be houses either, but there is something incredibly haunting about the humble home becoming an object of fear, suspicion, horror, or terror. Below are thirty things that might be wrong with that old house down the way.

Strange bestial sounds are heard emanating from the house in the wee hours of the night.
A suspicious man visits the house occasionally, carrying large, awkward sacks into the house.
The house has a collection of graves in the backyard.
Everyone knows the house is lived in, but nobody sees who lives there.
Every night the same haunting music plays loudly from inside the house.
Several unusually large dogs roam freely over the property, but never leave the grounds.
Children's toys litter the yard but there has never been any sign of a child in the house.
Strange lights move about the inside (pulsing, odd color, moving in an unnatural way, etc.)
The mailbox reads "Doctor" but doctor of what?
The topiary in the yard seem to change position, follow you with their heads, and make low, quiet animal noises.
Random screams come from the house but nobody else seems to hear or care.
The house receives regular visits from important looking people in expensive vehicles.
New statues appear on the house's grounds without delivery or any other explanation.
The house is home to an old man who dresses as a priest and has a wild expression and broken and disheveled appearance.
The house is decorated with strange charms and totems.
The house bears a subtle resemblance to a face, skull, or animal visage.
The house seems to "breathe".
Chittering sounds can be heard from inside the house if you get close.
At certain times of the year ritual chanting, prayers, or other strange recitations can be heard from within the home.
The yard is marked by odd footprints or other tracks leading in and out of the house.
Ghostly figures can be seen in the windows of the house.
Though the house is abandoned, the flag on the mailbox is up every morning.
Phantasmal scenes can be glimpsed through the slats in the fence as you walk by but not from any other angle or when you stand still to get a good look.
The grounds seem infested by countless numbers of a type of animal - cats, crows, rats, worms, etc..
The family living there is always dressed in funeral attire.
An electrical hum and static charge seems to constantly surround the house.
Children are seen playing in the yard, going to school, and even interacting in the neighborhood, but no parents are ever seen.
A kindly woman constantly comes from the house to borrow household items but nobody ever seems home should you visit.
The trees in the yard, though appearing long dead, seem to move against the wind and track the movement of those that pass nearby.
Roll twice.

Survival Horror as a Role-Playing Genre

2011-10-03T20:36:00.000-07:00

Over the years I have played just about every genre or at least made a go of it. Some of them, like fantasy adventure or pulp pretty much flow like water with game play coming simply and with little effort from players and GMs alike. Others are a bit tougher to pull off effectively and require a higher level of ability and/or commitment from the players and GM. Games involving deep plot, mystery and horror are definitely among this latter sort. Still, I have managed to play them on both sides of the GM's screen but one sub-genre seems a bit a bit trickier to pull off than the others - survival horror.

For me the survival horror genre seems to be characterized by a horrific situation that is overcome through a combination of thought and physical actions. Not just the realm of new video games, we see survival horror in some movies like Night of the Living Dead, 13 Ghosts and Alien. The tough part of this genre seems to come from balancing out the horrific setting with the characters' abilities to deal with it. If either of these two elements is out of balance then the game either turns into more of a horror/mystery game or spooky action adventure.

When designing a survival horror setting, I find it is best to isolate the characters in some way. This does not mean that such games need to take place in the middle of nowhere but more that the ability to reach out for help or to utilize resources beyond those immediately available is greatly hindered or done away with altogether. This can be accomplished through physical isolation (the easy way) or through plot driven isolation such as a communications blackout or government quarantine. In some cases isolation can be achieved by simply limiting the number of people involved in the plot. If you have a small group of survivors in a big area they will likely find themselves isolated if they intend to accomplish their goals simply by spreading themselves out.

As an example, in the movie "Alien" Ripley and her crew have a vast spaceship with all sorts of high tech equipment at their disposal. There situation does include physical isolation in that they are stuck on that ship in the vastness of space, but they are also isolated by their limited numbers. A larger crew would have been able to spread out and track the alien creature without undo vulnerability to any single crewman. However, Ripley's crew of under a dozen does not have this option. Their situation requires them to break apart and to work in smaller groups isolating individuals from the greater whole.

The other part of a survival horror game that often proves difficult is that of the characters' ability to deal with the situation they are placed in. If the characters are either too capable whether through their own abilities or due to the resources available to them, then they will not feel they are trying to survive as much as they are trying to beat another encounter. This is particularly difficult when running survival horror scenarios in established campaigns but is really handled the same way. This is where careful manipulation of the characters comes into play.

In many cases the isolation of the character's situation will do this work for you, but when it doesn't, you will have to find ways to either limit or nullify their characters' abilities so that they do not totally eclipse any sense of threat. Of course the power of the encounters is one way to do this. Though they may be able to fight their way through a few individual zombies or alien critters, will a straight up fight be the answer to stopping the threat as a whole. Is fighting them even an option such as when presented with a never ending hoard of zombies or some sort of haunting or demonic host. These situations will often have to be overcome by the accomplishment of a specific task or set of tasks which will fall to the characters' abilities to overcome.

Like any RPG scenario, a GM trying to balance out the scenario must take caution. Making the solution to specific to one character's abilities will lead to failure if that player is taken out of commission. but you also want to make sure that the characters do not have too much at hand or find ways to take out what they do have. If your group is a hard as nails military team with a ship in orbit, a gunship, and an APC, get rid of them all (yes, that was Aliens). I do find, however, that it is best to make any sort of limitations clear earlier in the scenario. Do not pull the rug out from under your players too often or you will come across as a bully. Doing this once or twice can help to establish a sense of desperation and isolation, but you don't want it to turn into frustration.

Limiting character abilities, powers and personal equipment can be a bit tougher. I usually find that setting a few ground rules early in the story helps with this and spares the players some frustration. If your zombies need a shot to the head to stop them, then a few early encounters with them should establish this. This works for nearly any combat ability whether it is weapon invulnerability, incorporeal, a psionic dampening field, etc.. Once these rules have been established, it's important for you to stick to the rules or, if you need to bend them, have it make a lot of sense. This brings up another concept that helps with both the first and second points here.

A sequential and systematic reduction of the characters resources will serve to remind them of the dire circumstances they are in as well as serve as a bit of a timer for the adventure never allowing them to settle too much. As mentioned above you don't want to go around ripping all hope out from under your players, but done correctly it can be quite effect. You can remove one after another of their escape routes or resources, especially when the group decides to or ends up being static. This should push them along.

So, as you can see it's a delicate dance riding the line between a spooky dungeon crawl and a deep mystery of foreboding doom, but the survival horror genre can be run as an RPG. You need to keep your players and their characters on the edge, blending action and desperate horror until they finally figure out what makes it all tick and find their way out.

Take care and remember that in space no one can hear you scream...

-Eli

Revisiting X-Plorers

2011-10-02T15:27:00.000-07:00

Back when X-Plorers first hit the scene, I had cranked out a couple of alternate character classes. One of them, the Pilot, was designed to fill an obviously hole I felt was present in the game. Sure there were classes that could pilot, but science fiction is full of hotshots, freighter captains, aces and other forms of specialist pilots.

The other class I came up with was more for the fun of it and it was the Star Marshal. This character was geared toward playing a game that used X-P as a core system but in a setting that was a bit more populace and focused on what was going on in inhabited space and in established colonies more so than on the frontier edge of unknown space.

I've included the two class write-ups below.

If you'd like to take a look at the original posts just go here for the Pilot and here for the Star Marshal.

Enjoy!

-Eli

R.I.P. Gramps

2011-10-01T11:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, at around noon, my grandfather passed away due to complications from a recent stroke. He was 86 years old. He had lived a long, good life, having survived and recovered from polio still able to lead an active life. He had worked for the Corps of Engineers and was part of several projects that helped build this country up.

Gramps was always a larger than life figure to me. I spent many summers with him as a child and every one of those times was pure magic. We did a lot together and I'll never forget it. It was Gramps who taught me how to swim like a fish. There were road trips, country markets, afternoons on the patio eating cold cuts and sipping cool drinks. If not for Gramps, I'd never have seen our nation's capital, visited Bull Run, Gettysburg, toured the Pentagon or walked through the amazing halls of the Smithsonian. But it was so much more than just trips.

Gramps was the sort of man who never seemed angry. He always had a smile and the most level temper. There was a whimsy to him that seemed to defy his years. I remember he used to get to know and name the humming birds that visited the feeder on his patio. I always loved hearing about a bullying Ruby Throat named "Nasty McAsty".

I think it is safe to say that Gramps is one of the reasons I am who I am. Never having had a strong male figure in my life, I think that in many ways I may have latched on to many of his examples without knowing it. Heck, it was Gramps who took me to my very first Star Wars movie and then to as many of the later ones as he could. His favorite was Empire Strikes Back.

Later in life I didn't see Gramps as much as I should have, but my love for him never diminished. I am sad that he passed without me being able to be more of a part of his life. Somehow, I know he understands and that he would never begrudge me my absence.

I love you Gramps...

Old Grenadier Future Warriors Vehicles On Ebay

2011-09-29T16:23:00.000-07:00

Hey folks,

Found a few more gems cleaning out the collection and slapped them up on Ebay. Check out the auction listings.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/emu2020/m.html?_trksid=p4340.l2562

All procedes go to building up the lead mountain!

-Eli

End of the Road for The Velocihamster

2011-09-25T20:19:00.000-07:00

A week ago, my oldest daughter, Anna's, cherished hamster passed away after on a long fight against a respiratory illness. I'll spare the graphic details and shocking way that Anna found her perished pet and continue on to something special I did for her.

As some of you may recall, Anna had used her hamster as the inspiration for her Mutant Future sometime back. Though we never got to play the character, she had a lot of fun envisioning her post-apocalyptic mutant animal character and I had a lot of fun illustrating her vision. Over time we had mentally transformed our other pets into additional denizens of the fallen Earth establishing them as friends and comrades of the mighty Velocihamster.

The illustration below is a quick drawing I did depicting our dog (Serene), our iguana (Bastion), and two cats (Oscar and Yeti) at Cheeks' graveside.

We all hope that cheeks has one heck of a time racing along on the eternal highway.

Ride on Cheeks.

Daffy Just Got Cooler

2011-09-21T21:07:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the gent over at the Unofficial Games blog. I have been trying to track this down since I caught the tail end of it on TV.

A Few New Hobby Supplies

2011-09-16T17:04:00.000-07:00

28mm barbarian slinger for scale

Was out and about with the wife today grabbing a bite together and doing a little bit of shopping when I found a few useful bits here and there.

First thing was found at the local Cash & Carry and has much potential for terrain building. Bought in bags of 100, these are dense wood sticks intended for use in candy apples. They are just about perfect for turning into palisades. Tapered on one end to a dull point, they can be used right out of the bag for simple projects or you could distress them for more realism. You could also cut off the pointed ends and use them for log construction.

The other find was a bag of various brass offcuts and end pieces of various diameters and lengths. These are sold in the modelling supply section of my local model/RC shop Galaxy Hobby as "Special Shapes". These are going to be useful in terrain building and sculpting.

I am looking forward to cracking these open and seeing what I can do with them.

-Eli

Conan The Barbarian (2011)

2011-09-16T16:14:00.000-07:00

So much has been said about this movie leading up to its release and since that I absolutely had to make sure I saw it before it left the theatres. I figured, with no real attachment to the literary version of the character and having grown up on a healthy diet of Arnie the Barbarian and "Savage Sword of Conan", that I might actually be able to enjoy it for what it was and not find myself jaded by prior expectations.

I did.

When it comes down to it, this movie really had a lot to like. Though it jazzed me as a kid, as I grew older I found the origin story portrayed in the movie much more entertaining and believable than the original Arnie film. It never quite sat right with me that "The Riddle of Steel" was so elusive as to drive a man to conquest. The overall visual of the movie is epic and both fanciful and familiar.

What it really comes down to for me is a basic check list of what this kind of movie should include -

Muscle bound noble barbarian
Pretty girls
Exotic places
Derring-do
A little magic
A big monster
Cool bad guys
Lots of sword fighting

All of the above are a big check if you ask me. When it comes to Conan plots you generally have the big guy racing around trying to stop some wicked person from unleashing some sort of unspeakable horror on Hyboria and we see that in this movie. Along the way, he makes some friends and falls for a girl. We also have that. In the end, the evil plot is undone, Conan is victorious but is in the end left where he began - alone and driven. Once again, we have that in this movie.

Couldn't find a lot wrong with the movie from where I was sitting even though I did let the mostly empty theatre open up the MS3TK spigot that can be let loose on any movie.

-Eli

[Edit: It was pointed out that I mistakenly used the incorrect "daring-do" instead of "derring-do". Well, to the anonymous poster who pointed that out, you are correct but I'll hardly be damned for writing it how it should have been. It is only because the originally incorrect spelling has become the correct spellingthat it is correct at all.]

D30 Lizardman Variants

2011-09-14T20:29:00.000-07:00

When orcs, goblin, bugbears and ogres are old or the weather is a bit too warm for hairy brutes, A DM can always count on a little help from his cold-blooded friends the Lizardmen. Lizardmen are an exotic addition to any adventure and can add a little bit of spice to the humdrum. But do all lizardmen need to be alike?

There have been some variations on lizardmen that have been done over the years, but many of them are total rewrites of the the creature. But a few simple tweaks here and there can certainly add a little variety. Presented here are some quick tweaks to the basic lizardman that a DM can use on the fly.

Horned: +1 additional gore attack for 1d6 damage.
Light Absorbing Scales: Hide in Shadows as a 4th level thief.
Horny Hide: +1 AC bonus
Acid Spit: Spit acid up to 10' inflictig 1d4 acid damage per turn.
Blinding Spit: Critical hit with this attack causes blindess for 1d4 turns
Leaping: Pounce attack has a 3 in 6 chance of knock opponent down.
Venom: Poison bite attack.
Carrion Eaters: Attacks cause disease on a 3 in 6.
Savage: Berserk in combat.
Agile: +1 AC vs missile attacks
Chameleonic: Limited invisibility
Poisonous Skin: Physical contact inflicts poison.
Stink: Horrible odor causes nausea. All opponents -2 to hit.
Prehensile Tail: +1 weapon attack
Arboreal: Move through trees at normal movement rate.
Regenerating: Heal 1d4 HP per round.
Weapon Tail: +1 attack; 1d6 damage
Large: +1 HD; +2 damage
Huge: +2 HD; +4 damage
Armored: +3 AC Bonus
Independent Eyes: May see in two directions at once. Never surprised.
Sticky Tongue: Grab attack up to 5' away.
Spiky Hide: Grappling attacks against the creature inflict 1d4 damage.
Climatic Adaptation: The lizardmen are adapted for a climate that is not suitable for them.
Enhanced Natural Weapons: Possessed of more effective natural weapons. +2 damage to non-weapon attacks.
Natural Spell Like Ability: Pick a spell of level three or less. Can be cast 2/day.
Sonic Bellow: Special attack causes confusion.
Gaping Maw: Special attack swallows on a 1 in 6.
Roll twice.
Roll thrice.

Classic Figs To Good Home

2011-09-10T15:16:00.000-07:00

A while back I discovered this pack of Citadel miniatures in my garage. I have no use for them, but seeing as they have some value, I thought I might post these up in hopes of finding a nice trade.

The pack is 1105 BARBARIANS and features two wonderful barbarian figures in a solid 28mm scale. One is advancing with a two-handed axe while the other, a good likeness of Conan, is posturing with his sword. Both are in classic loin cloth and muscles Frank Frazetta barbarian style. The figures are in splendid condition with nothing in the way of corrosion or erosion of the details.

Being OOP and from a kinder, gentler time in Citadel's history before it was simply the miniatures arm of Games Workshop's in-house games, these figures have a lot of character that we really don't seem to see much of in the newer, more cookie cutter figures from Games Workshop.

What am I looking for? Well I'll start with best offer and go from there. I am not looking to make a ton, and can certainly provide a list of minis that I am looking for.

Mainly I am looking for -

28mm Hundred Years War (Old Glory, Perry, Front Rank)

28mm War of the Roses (Old Glory Perry, Front Rank)

28mm Vikings

28mm Dark Ages Peasants

28mm Wild West

I'm also willing to entertain other offers on a case by case basis. As a miniatures gamer, my interests are far-ranging and you may have something that I could use that escapes me at the time of this writing.

Anyhow,

If you want 'em, let's talk trade!

-Eli

I Am a Mad Robot

2011-09-02T17:15:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

So, things trudge along. The kids are going back to school and I've managed to get myself a nice new little gig on the side. After offering some advise and general assistance in product development and the like to Steve, owner of Mad Robot Miniatures, I have been given a part-time gig as an official part of his team.

What does this mean?

Well what it means is that I'm going to be helping Steve develop new lines as well as fine tuning some of the models themselves. He's still the boss but this is a great opportunity for me to try to have some influence on the 15mm science fiction and miniatures world as a whole.

-Eli

Amazing Tomes!

2011-08-28T19:42:00.000-07:00

So my buddy Chuck had taken the dive into craft commerce. In addition to being a great friend, fellow gamer, and all around good guy, he's also a talented book binder and makes custom, leather bound, journal-sized books. He's recently started up a blog, called Portobello Road, to chronicle his efforts to make a business out of his craft.

I cannot say enough just how lovely his books are. All the work is done by hand, including the graphics on the covers. The papers are imported from abroad where they are also made by hand. Check him out and drop him a line if you are interested in seeing more or perhaps contracting a tome of your own. Perhaps you need a snazzy campaign journal or a spell book for your LARP. Maybe you need a prop for your latest campaign? I'm sure Chuck can make it happen.

Take care,

-Eli

28mm Vikings

2011-08-27T11:57:00.000-07:00

In an effort to try to get some of my collection painted and playable, I have resorted to outsourcing some of my painting. I have a friend who has had a lot of free time who had asked if I had any figures he could paint. I gladly sent off some of my 28mm Vikings. The initial offering was a collection of Plastic Wargames Factory Saxons and Crusader Viking command in metal. This was capped off by a dwarfed skald, sculpted by me. The Saxons had been "Vikingized" by the generous application of some Green Stuff to give them proper hair and beards.

I think my biddy did a good job of painting them all to tabletop standard. I intentionally had him avoid any shield markings beyond colored sections. I can add transfers to the shields later.

I've sent off a batch of 28mm cowboys and US Cav to see how he does with a different subject matter.

-Eli

Why So Quiet Around Here?

2011-08-18T11:01:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed that things have slowed down around ISLP. I am sorry for this, but there's a good reason for most of it.

First of all, I've been trying to put a little less time into my hobbies and more time with the family. This is something I must admit being a bit remiss on in the past.

In addition to this, I have been joined the crew of Dropship Horizon and have been doing a fair bit of work with the behind the scenes stuff there. I haven't been posting much to DH, but I am also the keeper of their mailbox.

I've also been putting a lot of time into my sculpting and designing for sculpting. As well as my own sculpting projects, I have been working with various folks in a behind the scenes capacity. Nothing major, but enough to occupy some of my time.

This is all on top of the the grass roots miniatures gaming "activism" I've been up to on The Miniatures Page. Believe it or not, years worth of making noise on various topics on the forums there seems to finally be rendering some results. The squeaky wheel really does get the kick!

I haven't abandoned the blog by any means, but I've just been busy elsewhere. I've got stuff I am working on and the occasionally topic worth posting does come up, but the time to sit down and create interesting blog posts is what I really seem to lack these days.

Rest assured that I will post something here when I can put together something that I feel is interesting enough to post.

Perhaps you could take a moment and chime in to let me know what all you have enjoyed about ISLP over the years. It may just give me an idea!

Thanks,

-Eli

Minis Ready to Go!

2011-08-11T20:13:00.000-07:00

Alright folks,

It's been a bit since I've posted any sculpting pics, but I have been working on some stuff. I've got about ten figures ready to go on their way to 15mm.co.uk for their SHM miniatures line. These greens/greys will be looked over by Gavin and hopefully will go into production.

The first shot is just to show scale. The Uhul on the left in about 20mm tall.

Uhul shaman

Starport scum

Alien Raider Captain

Alien w/ Cane

Alien bystander

Alien Mercenary

Robed Alien

Starport Urchins & Friend

Tangoing With Rango

2011-08-04T20:07:00.000-07:00

Alright, I may be a little late to this parade, but I recently bought the DVD and have to say I absolutely loved Rango. Johnny Depp offers us another great oddball characterization among a cast of other oddballs. The presentation of a cracked version of the Wild West is as memorable as the character design and the animation in this movie.

Rango's fish out of water journey from faux hero to true grit western type is quite entertaining to watch. Familiar western tropes are handled with style and agility throughout the movie. Cameos of familiar faces or homages paid to classic movie characters are also sprinkled through the entire picture. In many ways it sort of plays like an offbeat Wind in the Willows from an American point of view.

The picture below shows many of the memorable character designs. So taken with them am I that I am tempted to try to give them the same treatment that the fellow over at Mutton Chop Miniatures did with the characters from The Wind in the Willows, transforming classic animal characters into their human counterparts.

From a gaming perspective there is a lot to borrow here. From interesting Old West characters to an inspiration for a post apocalyptic mutant animal community.

Give Rango a peep and enjoy!

-Eli

Back From the Woods

2011-08-03T19:55:00.000-07:00

So, I've been back for a week now but just finally got some pictures. I'm afraid I don't have any stunning pictures of the wild this time around. I wasn't feeling my best and with recent knee problems wasn't much up for hiking.

Family Camp was pretty cool this year. We had a new (to us) two-room tent with room to stand up and some good solid camping lights and a new air mattress this year. My oldest daughter insisted on sleeping in her own tent instead of in the main tent with the rest of the family. The group camp space was filled to full this year with every tent pad used and even a previously unused tent space well away from the main site also in use. Heck, Anna's tent had to be pitched on a grassy spot off any of the prepared tent pads.

All the wood we had left for the last day at camp

As usual there was much food to be had as well as many adult beverages to be consumed once the day wound down. We had three full camp stoves available to us this year and enough fire wood that the fire ran almost constantly the entire time we were there except for a brief period between breakfast and dinner.

I mentioned adult beverages. The family we camp with has their own home brew and brought A LOT of it to camp to go with the various beers, coolers and other hard alcohol. The tastiest treat of the weekend was a drink called Caramel Apple that tasted so good and so innocent despite being built off a backbone of Everclear. Tasted just like a candied apple.

Anna's tent w/field expediant rain fly. She's so handy.

The river had diverted to the far bank by this summer and it made finding a swimming place difficult. Because all the water was on once side of the river it was running faster and deeper than in previous years. Fortunately, our usual backwater that serves as a kiddy pool was still there, if not a bit shallow. We were also able to construct an effective wading pool about 3 ft deep at the edge of the main river which proved quite effective for kids to float around on rafts and for adults to dangle their feet to escape the heat.

Getting hussled at a game of Cosmic Cows by my nephew. He kept adding the extra cow to the board or using it to switch cow positons.

We did attempt to go up river again to last year's great swimming spot, but found it running fast and deep and incredibly cold with the late melt off. I did risk a dip in the water and found myself swept away on the current and actually fighting to get to the bank before the river shallowed again and buffeted me on the smooth, but still hard river rocks. This began my adventure for this year.

As I was riding the current, my foot hit a rock and knocked my slip-on shoe off. I watched it go down river without me and was faced with a long walk over an endless wasteland of rocks and sand. I tried walking it with just one shoe and finally gave up. I resorted to tying my Superman t-shirt around my foot and using it as an add-hock shoe. This foot wrap helped with the walking, though I now found my body exposed to the slashing of branches in the underbrush I was cutting through to avoid more rocks. Surprisingly, the shirt survived the trip. It's now one of my favorites.

Anyhow, a good year and the beginning of the long wait until next year's family camp.

Take care,

-Eli

Music and Gaming

2011-08-02T07:59:00.000-07:00

Greetings again, ladies and gents.

I was just perusing another blog (gasp!), and ran across a clip to some music from YouTube. The song was "Men of Harlech," along with video from the classic film Zulu - an old favorite of yours truly, both song and film. One of the comments attached to said post got me to thinking about music, its ability to set moods, and how often it is, or at least should be, used for such when gaming.

I have used music in the past while playing games, both as simple background music to highlight the social aspect of wargaming or roleplaying, and as specific music for tone of the game. Nothing makes a game of Call of Cthulhu better than playing late at night, by candle or, even better, oil lamp light, with some spooky music playing low in the background. Or the soundtrack from, say Conan the Barbarian while playing Old School D&D. Or Carmina Burana ("O Fortuna" especially) during the climactic cult sacrifice scene. All that Latin chanting that is obviously not part of a Catholic Mass... seems sinister to me.

For Car Wars, I'll play road songs: "I Can't Drive 55," "Radar Love," "I Want You to Want Me," that sort of thing. Fast paced stuff. For cyberpunk games, I like punk music (duh!).

Anyway, for me, it is all about helping to set a mood, something which music is well known for doing. Don't believe me? Play some Barry White next time you're feeling romantic. Oh yeah.

Until the next time I rise out of the muck that is lurking... have fun!

Gone Camping

2011-07-28T10:17:00.000-07:00

It is that time again where I disappear into the wilderness away from electronics and civilization. I'll be gone for four days but will try to come back with some nicep ics of the trip. Not sure if I'm up for hiking this year due to some health issues but I'll try.

-Eli

Review of Khurasan Miniatures Exterminators

2011-07-27T10:21:00.000-07:00

Picture from Khurasan Miniatures website.

I received my order of Khurasan Miniatures 15mm Federal Exterminators and they are everything I hoped they would be.

The miniatures live up to the usual Khurasan standards and I'd say they are at the upper end of that. Clean casts, minimal flash if any and tons of character. The figures look like they will paint up quite easily. Each figure has not just what you'd expect - armor, gun, helmet - but they also have little tidbits. Each has a headset cam/comm unit and shoulder lights. Their guns, though not an exact replica of their movie inspiration, are close enough to evoke the same love.

The poses are all good in my opinion combining a nice combination of combat ready and patrol poses. There are a few models that stand out from the rest of the grunts and they each show off the attention to detail here. The motion tracker has his rifle at the ready as he takes a reading. The flamer advances ready to roast the enemy but he has not been left ill-equipped and still carries and assault rifle over his back. The man squad includes two SAWs one of which is a character model of sorts, sporting a pony tail and a few extra curves (no mistaking her for a man). The sergeant in the squad is not depicted in the old style heroic pose and instead appears to be trying to keep his teem "frosty" as he looks forward, but motions to his rear.

A few notes on the possibilities in this pack. The two SAWs look like they would easily be converted into other types of heavy weapons with a little cutting or add-ons. The kneeling figure could be converted to a sharpshooter/sniper with a barrel extension, maybe some green stuff. A bit of rod or tube could transform the shoulder-firing trooper into a missile launcher trooper.

I am sure they will sell well enough for an expansion to the line but even if they don't, I don't think people will be sunk if they don't mind a little modelling fun.

-Eli

More of Anna's Cardboard Craft

2011-07-23T12:42:00.000-07:00

My oldest daughter, a wiz with carboard, duct tape and hot glue made this last night.

I told her with a few spikes it would be a perfect Kroot Gun from 40K.

-Eli

Mother Load Find!

2011-07-22T12:57:00.000-07:00

Holy crap!

I haven't seen this stuff in over ten years.

I was on a quest for bits to use in my recent spat of terrain building and noticed a bin hiding in a corner of my garage shelves. On the outside it looked like just another bin full of bits and this and that. then, I noticed a miniature down in the depth of the collected containers, leftover sprue, plastic packaging. It was a wood elf archer.

Why would a wood elf archer be doing in the bottom of a terrain bits box?

Unearthing the bin from the shelf, I started to dig and found more and more interesting things not seen since my bachelor days with the gaming roommates. Miniature after miniatures was sifted from the junk, some of them in their original packaging. I had to dig more.

In all, the following things were excavated. No final tally yet, but it looks like -

8 x 28mm Harlequin Wood Elf Archers

30 x 28mm Old Glory Imperial Roman Legionaries

16 x 28mm Old Glory Late Roman Cavalry in scale male.

1 x Narn Dreadnought

1 x pack of GZG NSL fighters
1 x pack of GZG NAC heavy fighters

1 x old blue card Citadel fantasy early slot based fighters (2)

4 x partial (maybe complete) old resin and metal Grenadier Future Warriors vehicle kits.

1 x near complete plastic Warhammer Fantasy orc chariot.

Insane that I had all this laying in a bin. I must have swept a shelf when I moved out of the old house with the room mates and just forgotten about them. After that they likely got shifted from box to box and eventually ended up in this bin.

A good day. Now, to go clean up my garage.

-Eli

Awesomeness from Khurasan Miniatures

2011-07-21T14:38:00.000-07:00

Khurasan Miniatures, despite a summer slowdown, has still managed to put out some kickass releases. Their most recent offering is a set of scifi troopers bearing a striking resemblance to everyone's favorite bug-hunting jarheads.

Khurasan's 15mm Federal Exterminators come nine to a pack including a sergeant, two SAWs, and a flamer. He's already sold out of the initial stock and it's only been a week or so since they were released. More are on their way and I got mine ordered, so expect a review of the raw led soon.

Take care,

-Eli

Victoria's Boys in Red: Popular Mechanicks, Issue #6

2011-07-18T12:19:00.000-07:00

The Trencher Tank, a must-have for anyone into 15mm VSF.

Sincerely,

The Resident VSF Nut/Guru

Popular Mechanicks, Issue #6

Age of Stone and Bone - Prehistoric Fantasy

2011-07-15T14:11:00.000-07:00

For a long time now I have wanted to create a fantasy RPG campaign set in a still evolving fantasy world. In this world the familiar fantasy tropes would still be there but in a less refined, earlier interpretation placed along side familiar concepts from our own prehistoric world, much as most fantasy settings are set along familiar medieval/dark ages concepts. It would be a savage, primal world full of primitive monsters, some familiar, other unique to this evolving world.

One of the themes I wanted to play with was the mixing of earthly evolutionary concepts and fantastic elements. Just as the animals and beings of our world evolved from earlier creatures, so to have the creatures and being found in this setting. Different ages have come and gone, with the natural magical energies of the world altering the creatures beyond natural evolution. To this end, many of the more magical creatures began as relatively mundane creatures who were then fused with other creatures, given new abilities, or new forms.

Overall, I have many of the basic concepts worked out, though the specifics still need refining and systems developed. I've gone ahead and shared some of the concepts below -

MAGIC
Magic is an elemental force, just like earth, wind, fire, etc.. It flows and blows through the world. In some places it collects and pools or is locked into other elements. It changes those is stays in contact with for long periods of time and can transform the mundane into the magical.

In many respects the quest for magical energies and their mastery mirrors the real world "quest for fire" when our early ancestors sought to control what, to them, was a very magical and special force that is now taken for granted, much in the same way that magic is often taken for granted in fantasy settings.

Very few of the races of this world have learned how to manipulate magical energies in way that would seem familiar to a traditional fantasy world dweller. There are no spell books, scrolls or tomes. Most magic that is used comes in the form of talismans, magically imbued creature parts that have either been preserved or that retain their magical abilities for a limited time once removed from the parent creature.

DEITIES AND RELIGION
The Age of Stone and Bone is a world before gods and extra-planar beings meddling in the world. That is not to say it is without religion, but what there is takes the form of early forms of ancestral worship, totemism, animism, folk energies, or cults. All of these draw from a subconscious focus of the magical energies of the world, coalescing them into powerful foci.

Spirits of the land and of place may manifest through these powers, coming into being through the mingling of belief, magical and elemental energies. Belief in the power of one's great heroes may draw their spiritual energies into a form that can grant some manner of protection or blessing upon people. These same mingling energies might create a place where "things" happen - a healing grove, a cursed pool, etc..

In the more settled regions, where there are enough people believing the same thing, the world is seeing the beginnings of more conventional religion. These cults are bringing the first true gods into being or tapping into existing powers drawn into this world through sheer power of desire.

DRAGONS
Why do dragons get special mention? Well, that is because dragons are central to the history of this setting. Not only are they part of the historical background and plot of the world, they are also one of the greatest examples of the magical evolution of the world as well as one of the few species to master magic.

Just as in our world, dinosaurs once walked this world. Unlike our world, they did not disappear to such a degree. While most of them died out or were pushed to remote places in the world, some transformed into the great dragons, amassing profound power and skill with magic. At the high point of their evolution, dragons ruled over an age of reptiles where lizard men and other saurian species terrorized one another as well as the developing mammals.

It is the dragons that are responsible for the creation of the elves and dwarfs and it their absence that has allowed mankind to expand throughout the world.

A PRIMAL, SAVAGE WORLD

A general theme for this setting is that all things are somehow less refined and more savage and primal. Dire versions of animals are common and even monsters are somehow more "prehistoric' in their depiction. Their horns may be more massive. They may have tusks or horns they normally do not have. Coats are shaggier and bodies bulkier for the most part.

But the world is primal and savage in other ways. It is a cold world with little in the way to allow the races here a leg up. Agriculture is only possible in the warmest parts of the world with most vegetable food being taken from naturally occurring sources.

METAL
Essential to this world remaining stone age is a lack of suitable metal in the world. it is not without metal, but there is so little of it that creating weapons, armor and technology out of it is hard. Only this world's dwarfs have it in enough abundance to use it regularly (more on that later).

Metal will most often be encountered in charms, talismans and as part of those things that take special note in this world. Somebody with metal decorations is likely powerful or potent in some manner perhaps magically or politically.

STONE AGED MASTERY

Though this world is savage and primitive in many respects, it is also a fantasy world and as such there has been plenty of time for its inhabitants to develop and master their environments. The diversity in this world stretches across the spectrum from small bands of hunters and gatherers to massive stone age city states taking advantage of fortunate environments to build stable societies.

One of the best ways to envision this development is to take all stone-age technologies we know of and imagine what they could achieve given time. Massive stone cities built on the backs of men and beast. Other places might be sprawling adobe towns or even villages built from bone or wood. Taking advantage of their environments to aid in defending themselves might lead to exotic habitation on cliff sides and in the trees.

Weapons and protection will also benefit from this mastery. Wicker, wood, even bone can prove of value when your opponents are armed only with stone and bone weapons. I envision many of the fantasy standards done with these stone age technologies. Perhaps a suit of interlocking bone plates or stone halberds.

As you can see this is a world that cannot simply be cookie-cuttered into just any set of rules. There will need to be tweaks and adjustments made to get things to play the way I envision them working in the world. It seems to me that many of the class roles might need to be broadened or even done away with to allow for characters that are entertaining to play but still present themselves in a way consistent with the setting.

In a future blog post, I'll go over how I see the development of the intelligent races of this setting.

Hope you enjoyed a look at my idea for my Age of Stone and Bone campaign setting.

Take care,

-Eli

Looking for Transport?

2011-07-14T08:59:00.000-07:00

Hello friends. We're all looking for new and better ways to transport our little toy soldiers, right? Well, a couple of years ago, my lovely wife bought me an awesome aluminum case and some trays with magnetic lining in the bottoms from Dave's Baggage Train. Only problem is that the case is too big for current carryon size requirements. Having just flown with figures, I know how frustrating that is.

So I looked around, and found this: Jemco USA. They happen to be right here in my hometown, too. Weird, that. They sell jewelry supplies, and amongst those things are trays identical to mine, and some other carrying cases.

Besides transport stuff, they also have mold making equipment, casting equipment, and tools of various sorts that might be handy for you to take a look at.

For the record, I have no financial stake in the company whatsoever. Just thought it might be a handy thing to know about. You can get foam inserts or magnetic sheeting already cut to order from Dave's Baggage train, or you can get the magnetic sheeting from a local sign shop, which is probably going to be less expensive.

Trash Troll

2011-07-09T09:38:00.000-07:00

I don't know if it's my artistic eye, a good mind for the abstract, or some portent of evil, insanity, or both but I found this sinister fellow staring back at me from an office restroom the other day.

The funny thing is, I cannot help but feel that this sort of thing is likely to have been the origin of many of humanity's myths and legends. The human eye loves a pattern and a superstitious mind will put a meaning to that pattern. Had this been wrinkles in tree's bark and I some ancient world fellow, I'd very likely have thought the place haunted, cursed, blessed or whatever.

Take care!

-Eli

New Boxed Set Finds

2011-07-08T09:07:00.000-07:00

So, some friends of mine (husband and wife) sport some amazing thrift store skills and found me three complete boxed set gaming products at the local Goodwill. I should also take a moment to thank them again and comment that this is pretty normal for them. Like I said, super powered thrifters.

The Rune Quest game is pretty much brand new inside, even though the box shows some wear. The rule books are clean, unmarked and complete. Even the character sheets are still intact. Not sure if the original box came with dice, but this one didn't have any in it.

The Torg game is absolutely brand new. The books, the box, even the cards that came with the game are all in perfect condition. Heck, the cards aren't even unwrapped yet.

The Demons II set is one of several that Role Aids put out before they went poof. I recall this series having some of then nastiest demonic creatures I've seen in AD&D many of them drawing from classical themes and concepts of Hell. This boxed set is less about individual demons and denizens and builds up the setting for a demon-themed game. Once again, the box and its contents are in perfect condition.

I am lucky to have friends who know what I like and take the time to check in when they find something.

Thanks again you two!

-Eli

Happy 4th of July!

2011-07-04T08:53:00.000-07:00

To all my fellow Americans have a fun and save holiday! Regardless from whence you hail, yer still invited to the BBQ and the fun!

Take care and thanks for reading,

-Eli

Defiant Principality: ...such a bizarre device!?

2011-06-30T15:41:00.000-07:00

Such a quaint but fun idea for the 18th century. Military personnel carriers!

Defiant Principality: ...such a bizarre device!?

-Eli

Operation Barbarossa Halted by 4 year old Girls

2011-06-20T09:55:00.000-07:00

[Note: This is a repost from my blog, The Scattergun Gamer.]

I know, it doesn't make sense. Just listen to the story.

Today was my monthly games day in our local club. We refuse to give it a name, as it falls apart if you name it. Anyway, we play at a local university (UHCL). We arrived to find our usual room already occupied. Shouldn't have been, but rather than force a class to relocate to the room they were supposed to be in, we contact the school and get an alternate room. It's now about 1000 hours, we have the room until 1800.

We get to the new room, get all set up, and start playing. I was trying a new set of rules (new to me, that is) called Spearhead. 6mm World War 2, stands as platoons. Eastern Front, Operation Barbarossa. I'm the Germans. Victory conditions are destroy two battalions. By the time the Soviet players (also new to the rules) and I are ready to go, it's 1200. Skip lunch, let's play.

Turn 1 is a lot of maneuvering. Turn 2 sees two forward recon units run into each other (literally). I call in fire from the 150s and wipe a platoon of Stalin's untermenschen bikers from the face of the recently expanded Vaterland. Turn 3 and the Soviet tank hordes are getting close enough to my pitifully small armored contingent to make me sweaty, but I have a flank march getting ready to come in behind his infantry.

About 1400 hours, just as we are finishing Turn 3, They arrive. "They" being 50 little girls (maybe 4 to 6 years old) and their mommas. With Head Momma coming in and demanding to know what we are doing in their room that they "paid for and have been using for the last three days." Seems the scheduling people forgot when they gave us this room. We had noticed when we came in that the room was trashed, but just picked up the worst of it and got started playing.

Five minutes later, we're picking up. Ten minutes after that, we're gone - really quick for us, especially considering that They didn't wait for us to clear out before they started pouring in. Money talks, and you-know-what walks. Ah well. The game was pretty good to that point, fairly intuitive in how things operated. I'll try it agian one of these days. Maybe next time, the Fascist invaders will crush the godless hordes of the murderous Stalin!

Oh, and if that weren't enough, when we first arrived my son and I saw an armadillo digging up the flower beds out in front of the building. You know you're in Texas when the armadillos tear up the college landscaping.

New 15mm From Primaeval Designs

2011-06-18T21:19:00.000-07:00

Just a quick blurb to let folks know that Primaeval Designs has released a new batch of 15mm Prehistorics. They are available now, even though the web store has yet to be updated. Until then you can order them through email contact and I've listed the codes and prices below -

15PD500 Tyrannosaurus Rex $10.00

15PD504 Triceratops $10.00

15PD600 Smilodon populator (2) $ 5.00

15PD602 Woolly mammoth $10.00

15PD603 Steppe Mammoth $10.00

15PD604 Coelodonta woolly rhino (2) $ 8.00

15PD601 Neanderthal Hunter Set #1 (10) $7.00

I think the price on these is excellent and Primaeval's quality is excellent.

Take care,

-Eli

Sculpting Update - More Aliens and Uhul

2011-06-17T17:06:00.000-07:00

Sculpting has been continuing here at ISLP. A lot of this is still in the realm of practice and I've likely tossed as many projects as I have finished (likely more). I thought you might like to see some of the WIP shots of the various things I'm playing with.

These first two froggy fellows are two of three figures representing some large 15mm space pirate sorts inspired by a semi-popular science fiction TV series. I must say that the cobbled together gear and less than perfect attire of these aliens has allowed me a lot of fun and variety in the sculpting I get to do on them. I am sculpting the weapons freehand on these as they don't really have to match.

The next three are two new WIP as well as a conversion on one of the metal masters of one of my original sculpts, the Vergan from 15mm.co.uk. The Vergan has been given a sort of retro ray gun style weapon. The other two miniatures are destined for use as other unarmed characters for scifi games.

This is a quick shot of the modified Vergan from the front along with a couple of familiar faces from past posts. The Vergan's weapons is still a WIP but the idea was some sort of sonic weapon as seen in early scifi RPGs such as Traveller and Star Frontiers.

And I think you all can figure out what these are. These feathered fellows have proven popular enough with myself as well as others to warrant continued practice and development. I have tried to go with a more solid substructure on the outside two in hopes that it will help produce more animated figures.

Enjoy!

-Eli

Terrain Lab - Overgrown Hedges

2011-06-16T08:00:00.000-07:00

Another quick build here, these hedges were done using scraps or card and styro for the understructure. I painted the styro grey and washed it with a dark brown before dipping the whole affair in loose model foliage. I hot glued a trie into each one to enhance the overgrown look.

Have fun!

-Eli

Terrain Lab - Garden Patches

2011-06-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've been working on some light weight terrain while I take the time to score some proper buildings or build them myself, whichever comes first. As I do not like to spend a ton of money and enjoy coming up with my own ways of doing stuff, I decided to dig into the junk drawers and see what was there. The answer? Old pizza box liners.

Oddly enough, you can keep this stuff around without attracting flies and the corrugated finish has a number of uses from cheap Spanish tile roofing, to corrugated iron, and now garden patches. The process is relatively simple, though you can layer it on as much as you like and to whatever final effect you want -

CONSTRUCTION

Cut corrugated pizza box liner paper to desired size.
Round off the corners of the pizza box liner.
Glue liner to stiff card, leaving a modest rim between the edge of the liner and the edge of the card. Make sure to minimize air bubbles and rippling in and under the liner. I used hot glue as it gives and instant result. Any unsightly ripples or air pockets can be taken care of by slitting the liner and then gluing it down. This has an added benefit of causing some nice irregularities in the relatively uniform corrugation.
Round off the corners of the card and cut little irregularities into the straight edges. You want the patch to be pretty much rectangular, but not mathematically perfect.
Build up a raised rim in the space between the edge of the liner and the edge of the card. I used hot glue again as it produced an irregular finish and hardened/dried quickly.
Coat the entire piece in white glue. Make sure to brush the glue along the furrows so as not to mute the detail too much but at the same time, don't be too uniform.
Dip the whole thing in fine grit and let dry.
Once the grit is dry, paint the whole thing with whatever color ground you feel is best. The paint will dry irregularly because of the sand and may require multiple coats. Let mostly dry.
When the earth color is mostly dry, run a fresh coat around the raised rim of the garden patch and dip the whole thing in flocking or turf. The idea is to get an almost uniform covering on the rim, with just few stray patches in the furrows.
Apply two coats of spray sealer to affix the flocking.

ACCENTS AND VARIANTS

The above steps will produce a very basic garden patch that is good for unplanted or fallow ground. the irregularities in the paint and the flocking make it almost unnecessary to dry brush or shade. I did try brushing some dark brown ink over some of the patches that wouldn't darken up enough, but it looked fine without.

If you wanted to make the garden more or less "alive" you can add plants and minimize the amount of flocking you allow in the furrows or you can do what I did on one and heavily flock the furrows and then brush them flock around, creating a clotted and disturbed earth effect. More foliage on the furrows could give it a truly overgrown effect. I think I'll try putting some poles and strings in one of them to suggest beans or peas. I have considered adding squash, pumpkins, or other resilient self-starting vegetables in some of them.

Take care,

-Eli

Dark Ages Building Scale Pic

2011-06-12T21:51:00.000-07:00

Plastic 28mm Wargames Factory Viking for Scale

I realized one problem with the video I made of our Dark Ages buildings. I forgot to show any sort of figures for scale, so here ya go.

-Eli

Dark Ages Terrain Video Post

2011-06-10T14:53:00.000-07:00

So, I was playing with my little digicam and realized it can take videos as well. How neat. So, I did a quick little video of a Dark Ages project that my buddy Chuck and I have been working on. As a funny side note, I got in a lot of trouble for making it sound like I'm the only one working on it.

The basic process was borrowed from a post the The Historical Miniaturist.

D6 Pulp - Island of The Tiki TerrorSession Two

2011-06-02T20:53:00.000-07:00

When we last left our heroes they had come aboard the tramp steamer they had seen fleeing the island which had just now returned. Coming aboard they were met by the enigmatic Mr. Muse and his armed crewmen. Faced with the sudden realization that they had blundered into the hands of an unknown enemy, they were taken below decks and secured inside a cabin with a view of the events about to unfold on the island.

Locked inside the guarded cabin, Marcus and Loupe set to figuring out a way to escape. They were spurred on in their determination by the sight of a launch taking the three survivors they had rescued to the island. As the considered their escape, Loupe observed, through a pair of binoculars, the hostages being tied up on the beach, and some sort of native idol being placed between them. Above them on the top deck of the ship they could hear heavy activity and machinery in action. They had to move fast.

Opening the portal and throwing a lamp out of it, Marcus went to the door calling out to the guard that Loupe had foolishly squirmed out the porthole and put himself overboard. The guard moved into the cabin to check it out not knowing that Loupe was hidden behind the door, having fashioned a club out of several of the metal bed slats tied together with torn bed sheet. Though Marcus would have been better to attack the guard, it was more believable that Loupe went out the window.

Loupe sprung on the guard but his initial ambush proved little more than an announcement of his presence (Chuck rolled poorly). Marcus managed to get a blow in before the guard became fully aware of what was going on, but he too failed to knock the man out. Unable to use his rifle in close quarters, the guard was forced to engage in a brawling melee with the two heroes until finally Marcus connected with his iron fist and knocked the guard to the floor. They had their freedom.

Snatching up the guards rifle, they set out into the interior of the freighter, making their way toward the pilot house. They managed to wind their way slowly through the corridors and up a couple of decks. When they reached the base of the pilot house, they dispatched two guards posted there and caught a glimpse of what must surely be the rest of Muse's plan.

Mr. Muse's men were busy unlimbering and securing a deck gun. Muse must be planning on using the now captive survivors as bait for the idol. He had said that he had returned with the means to deal with that threat and such a weapon would most certainly due the trick in dispatching the creature as well as the bait. Wasting no more time, the heroes made their way up to the bridge where they quickly and quietly took control.

The captain, a scarred and bearded veteran of English descent was locked in the map room while the helmsman was lashed to his wheel. Loupe and Marcus went out onto the open deck of the bridge, took aim on Mr. Muse and his men and ordered their surrender.

The following scene was an excellent bit of role-play with much spontaneous dialog between Loupe and Muse. Loupe attempted to bluff Muse but Muse proved too cool for that. At one point Muse even showed his calm disdain for the heroes by defying their threats to shoot him when he fished a cigar from his jacket. Puffing away casually, Muse continued his parlay with Loupe. Attempts were made to appeal to Muse's business nature and any higher decency he might have. No matter what they said, Muse seemed undaunted and failed to give the heroes any sort of solid cause to shoot him.

Eventually Muse saw that he had the upper hand on his scrupulous adversaries and set himself to a subtle, but telling monologue. Through his own words he indicated that he was truly after treasure left on the island by ancient sailors and that he planned to use any means to acquire it. It was then, that his hubris got the better of him and he tipped his hat a bit too far, revealing that he had built his fortune from a failed automobile manufacturer to international industrialist by selling weapons to both side during WW1. They had him.

Loupe was from Belgium and had grown up with the stories of the war. Marcus had fought in the war. He had lost an arm and half his face in the war. Muse had shown himself to be a villain and they now had cause, but they were still only two men. Thinking fast, Loupe had Marcus fetch the ships' captain from the map room. The man was British and a seaman of some years. What's more, he had been brandishing a military service revolver. Keeping the captain out of sight, they let him hear Muse's boasting monologue steeling the captain as their ally.

Secure in the knowledge that they had the backing of the captain his command of the sailors, Loupe took a shot to silence Muse. His Mauser rang out and Muse went down, blood spraying from his head. Loupe, not a killer, slumped to the deck as the captain called out to his men to stand down and begin dismantling the deck gun.

The captain ordered a rescue party dispatched and a launch was put over the side. As the heroes milled about, Loupe still numb with having shot Muse, there was a roar heard from the island. The idol was on the move and the captives were still helpless on the beach. Snapped out of his stupor by the sudden call to action, Loupe and Marcus sped to the railing and lept over the side of the freighter into the descending launch.

Hitting the water, Marcus put the launch to full throttle with Loupe perched in the bow, rifle ready. Throwing caution to the wind and setting aside all concerns for tearing out their keel on the reefs, the heroes hurtled to the beach, raking its bottom over the sharp underwater barrier. When they reached the beach, Marcus moved to help the captive while Loupe, having remember the image of the Shaman using a conch to command the idol, sped off into the jungle in search of the natives he was sure were commanding it.

As Loupe tracked the sound of drums and the blowing conch, Marcus found himself under the baleful glare of the Tiki as it broke the tree line. The creature gestured and postured in true island warrior fashion, making a eerie and savage ceremonial advance on the hero who was hastily untying the captives. When the Tiki finished its warriors dance and broke into a charge, Marcus bid the one freed captive run and slung the other two over his shoulders, racing to the boat.

Meanwhile Loupe had found the shaman and the other natives who had been producing the ceremonial music that controlled the killer idol. Firing a shot, he shocked them from their frenzied ritual. the shaman gaped in disbelief as the boy hero ran up and snatched the conch from his hands. Realizing where his bravado had placed him, Loupe suddenly snapped out of the hero's moment, turned and fled with a shrill, boyish cry, the now angry natives in pursuit.

The idol had closed most of the distance between itself and Marcus just as the Iron Devil had returned the captive to the launch. Marcus turned just in time to see the 9ft tall idol launch itself into the air in a grappling lunge. Marcus and the idol tumbled into the surf and commenced to a grappling combat. the idol, clumsy at best failed to connect any real telling blows on Marcus but he had his own trouble damaging the Tiki. It seemed that The Iron Devil might have met his match.

As the idol stood up in the surf, a menacing glow building up in its mouth signaling an impending fiery assault on Marcus, Loupe broke through the trees. Running down the beach he blew the conch, using the pattern of high and low notes he had recorded from the paintings in the cave. The idol froze in the surf, going back to being just a carved statue. Just to make sure, Marcus pushed it over into the surf. The pursuing natives, seeing their supernatural warrior defeated, fled into the surrounding woods under a hail of repelling gunfire from the crewmen on the launch.

In the closing of the session, the treasure was recovered from the island and dispersed throughout the great museums of the world. The conch was destroyed so that the idol would never live again. The Tiki was put to the New York museum. Loupe, still feeling guilty about having shot Mr. Muse, turned himself into the FBI but received a thank you and a "good job" instead of any sort of criminal charges. The FBI seemed relieved at Muses' demise.

All in all, this last session in "Island of the Tiki Terror" was a fun one. The role-playing was better than it had been in the previous adventure and the first session of this one. The character of Muse was fun to play and though he was shot in the head, he's the sort of villain that even the players wouldn't mind seeing come back.

For the next adventure, it was suggested that we play an adventure that took place in civilization. This is fine with me and I've even got a head start if I want to use it. The original introductory adventure was an urban tale titled "The Curse of Stone".

Tune in next time...

-Eli

D6 Pulp - Island of The Tiki TerrorSession One

2011-05-26T18:10:00.000-07:00

Island of the Tiki Terror ended up going long enough that we had to break it into two parts. A little less straight forward than Death Webs of the Spider Queen, this adventure had the players guessing and searching a little more free form.

The adventure begins with Marcus and Loupe and a skipper (NPC) out in the south Pacific running a test on a super secret boat design and going over the engine and their latest data below decks when they hear the sound of a chugging steam engine coming toward them. Racing to the deck, they come up in time to see a massive tramp steam barreling down on them, seemingly unaware of their vessel. A quick scramble and they manage to get themselves out of the way, but just barely.

As they stood on deck in disbelief, shaken but otherwise unharmed, they watched the watched the steamer cruise off toward the horizon. Curious as to what had the steamer moving away in such a reckless hurry, they looked to see where it might have come from, following the trail left by its wake and eventually coming upon a solitary, uncharted island.

From their vantage point they could see that it was a jungle-covered volcanic island with three distinct peaks, one of which was still quite alive and active. They could see the sign of a landing and also a few columns of dark smoke trickling up from within the jungle. Figuring there might have been trouble on the island they decided to investigate and took their skiff ashore.

Once ashore they found that the landing sight was a shamble. The remains of a broken and shattered landing craft were scattered all over and signs of panic and struggle were evident by the scuffling in the sand and several trails of footprints from and to the landing sight. Most notable were a trail of large, impressions in the the same pattern as footprints moving off after one of the trails of human-sized prints.

From here the adventure became a series of investigations and encounters. The heroes discovered a lady, a nurse from the expedition, treed by wild pigs and from her learned that there had been an oil prospecting expedition here. The party discovered a tar pit burial ground where something huge had uprooted itself.

At one point they decided to survey the perimeter of the island by boat, looking for survivors and any sign of the trouble that chased away the expedition. While doing this they attempted to communicate with the steamer, thinking it might still be in the area but received only vague, even cryptic responses. As they moved around the island there were signs of an ancient shipwreck as well as an abandoned village.

They found two other survivors, both scientists and one the brother of the nurse they had rescued. They told of native attacks and spoke of a huge monster idol that had attacked them with iron hard wooden fists and fire breath.

They later encountered natives who were hold up in an old, overgrown European style log fort. they stormed the fort under a hail of old cannon balls and at one point an entire cannon was rolled down the hill at them. The heroes were able to successfully parlay for the release of another survivor the natives held captive. The natives offered few clues to what was happening on the island, but there was some insight as to why. It would appear that a guardian had been stirred by the actions of the expedition.

While exploring the periphery of the island they had seen a cave set into the side of a cliff and went to explore it. There they found, deep in the rock, a hidden grotto where wall paintings showed images of the idol and a people that had once lived here. The idol was shown smiting enemies and in one image, leading a group of shadowy figures. There was also a panel that showed a chief or shaman commanding the idol with a conch shell.

The session ended with the return of the steamer and the heroes going out to it to return the expedition members. Coming aboard they found that the expedition's founder, rich industrialist Bartholomew Muse, as well as many armed crewmen. It was clear that things were not so simple as they had thought as the guns were kept on the heroes as Mr Muse answered their questions with his own brand of charm. He revealed that the ship had returned with something that would take care of the "problem" they had encountered and that they had not come to the island to survey it or to take something away, but rather to recover something that had been left. The heroes were then taken below to be made "comfortable".

As we ended on this cliffhanger, the heroes began to try to piece things together (as the camera faded to black). Connecting the dots of the shipwreck and the old European style fort, the were sure that the true motives for this power hungry Mr Muse must be some form of treasure that the ship had been carrying.

Are the heroes correct? Will they escape with their lives?

Tune in next time....

Awesome Kid Quote of The Day

2011-05-22T18:39:00.000-07:00

Kid #1 - Look out for that pillow it's a firebreathing pillow. Oh, and I put some monkeys in there.
Kid #2 - Fire-breathing monkeys?
Kid #1 - Yes. And, some with chainsaws.

Awesome!

-Eli

More Primaeval Designs

2011-05-20T10:09:00.000-07:00

Hey folks,

Being a fan of Primaeval Designs miniatures, I thought I'd do a quick post to show off some moreo f their work and give a nice congrats to the team there.

First little tidbit is that they have been mentioned in the pages of the grea paleo mag Prehistoric Times, a great magazine for fans of prehistoric beasts scienticifc and otherwise.

In other news they have been picked up and are now being stocked by a Japanese company called Terraincognita Miniatures that specializes in high end collectible miniatures. Below are a few pics off their Facebook gallery. You don't see a lot of American hobby stuff make it to Japan, so I thought this was particularly cool.

28mm Feathered Gallimimus

28mm Spinosaurus

28mm Paraceratherium

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D6 Pulp - This Week's Adventure Is...

2011-05-16T21:11:00.000-07:00

The game is scheduled for this Thursday with an AAR to follow.

Stay tuned!

-Eli

AmericasFightingDinosaur: The Jaws of Defeat.....

2011-05-14T11:27:00.000-07:00

Not mine, but just had to share it!

AmericasFightingDinosaur: The Jaws of Defeat.....: "prologue: If I was a superhero, my arch nemesis would be known as Zeitgeist . Zeitgeist, that thing that leads so many of us to the so many..."

New D6 Adventure Pulp Campaign Kicks Off

2011-05-14T07:34:00.000-07:00

I've got a soft spot for the pulp genre. Everything from the exotic settings, simple yet gripping plots, the over the top characters and bizarre denizens really gets my creative juices flowing. So, I decided to run another game with a small group (2 players so far) and no real pretensions about a regular, ongoing campaign.

So far, my players are Atomic Chuck and Chrispy. Chuck has created his own version of Tintin named, a favorite character of his, named Loupe. He's armed the little investigative reporter with a pistol, not pad and the snappy catch phrase, "Leopolds Ghost! Evil is afoot!".

Chrispy is reprising his role as Marcus "Iron Devil" Kingsley. Marcus is a WWI veteran and a mechanical genius with half his face covered in a metal mask and a mechanical arm. Think of him as half Tony Stark and half Sgt. York.

To kick the campaign off and introduce my players to the D6 system, I went with a short little adventure entitled...

The adventure began in true dramatic styling with the heroes already in jeopardy and being chased by the minions of the Black Raja after liberating a statue of the Infant Ganesha from his palace. Teetering on the edge of a chasm, they stood poised to defend themselves when they heard a horrible fracas from the jungle followed by the blood curdling roars and screeches of,

"Blood Monkeys!" their guide and friend Singh Hartha was well aware of the terror that now threatened them.

Fortunately our heroes quick thinking had them over the side of the chasm and into the deep river below where they floated away to safety. The adventure had begun.

The adventure went on with the heroes washing up at the sight of the encampment of Dr Ignatious Pemmingham and his daughter Cordelia. they learn that the doctor and his daughter have been here in this isolated part of the Indian jungle for years looking into peculiarly long-lived Sograpti tribe.

An argument between an older native woman (Prakti) and a young native girl is broken up by Cordelia who drives the woman from the camp, hinting that not all is well in the camp, though the Doctor is most adamant that nothing is wrong. The later discovery of the young girl's freshly killed and withered husk of a body wrapped in a cocoon of spider silk the next morning comes as a shock to all. Investigation into this grizzly killing leads the heroes to an ancient of an obscure Spider God.

Exploring the ruins of this temple shows that despite it's ancient decrepitude, there are folks still using it. Gates are oiled and hinges on door still function. What is worse is that the temple and the jungle around it appear to be home to what the players begin to refer to as SOUSes (spiders of unusual size). They find that one of the buildings of this temple has broken tomb in it that seems to lead into passages below. Not wanting to take chances, the heroes set the webbing in the building aflame, hoping to cook any spiders they might conceal.

They go on to explore the central temple structure, a large building about 3-4 stories tall with a central staircase leading to the top and a ritual structure on top. Most troubling is the discovery that the entire structure seems to be riddled with portal-like holes that lead inside.

Reaching the top of the central building, the heroes discovery an alter stone that is in actuality a concealed opening to a staircase winding down inside. The heroes follow it to find a spider web shaped gate, locked and barring entrance to the interior of the structure. Beyond the gate appears to be an open chamber strewn with generations of webbing. Marcus manages to his the superior strength in his mechanical arm to force the gate open allowing them to investigate.

What they find is a horrific space filled with lurking doom and far too many concealing webs. The remains of generations of prey scatter the floors and an all too familiar hissing can be heard from all about as their eight-legged foes lurk and scuttle, undoubtedly with the heroes' certain death in mind. Quickly thinking, they set this space aflame and retreat back up the stairs, sealing the stone altar over the entrance once more.

As smoke billows from the portals, they can see the eerie shadows and hear the pained hissing and screeching of the creatures trying to make an escape from the inferno on the other side. A cry from the courtyard brings them back to the sight of the original opening they found in the mausoleum building where they discover Cordelia on the ground and beside herself, a bitten native guide dying at her side.

The heroes take Cordelia and the envenomed man back to camp and ponder the possibility that they had not killed all of the spider within the temple structures. Some speculation as to what has been going on with the Sograpti and the temple leads to the revelation of an ancient but supposedly forgotten spider cult. The doctor insists that this cult is now the stuff od legends and boogey stories.

The next morning, they heroes wake to find that Cordelia has gone missing in the night. All her day clothes are left behind and it appears that she set out on her own feet during the night in nothing but her night clothes. Tracking her footprints through the jungle, the heroes lose track of them in a clearing where they find her nightgown fluttering on a twig. There is no sign of Cordelia beyond this and the heroes begin to speculate of she was kidnapped of if, in fact, she may somehow be the spider that has inflicted the two attacks.

Is Cordelia cursed? Has she been kidnapped by a spider cult? Is this all some revenge plot by the slighted Prakti?

Some investigative work in the clearing reveals the signs that a large spider has moved through the trees here and the heroes follow the telltale marking through the trees until, following the sounds of ritual chanting and music in the glooming evening, they come upon the site of a native ritual.

Hundreds of natives have gathered at hidden ritual site. As the music thunders and whines with horns and drums, the gathered folk whip themselves into an ecstatic frenzy. Cordelia is seen laying, dazed and out of her wits in a cradle formed by the legs of a bejeweled spider statue. A large native guards her. the heroes decide to wait and see who is leading this ritual, hunkering down beyond the firelight as darkness falls.

As the rituals continues on into the night a mysterious figure appears at the far side of the clearing. It is a women, clad from head to toes in layers of spider silk and jeweled finery. the heroes maneuver themselves so that Loupe is behind the apparent priestess with his pistol, the others positioned to rush in to rescue Cordelia.

Stepping from the jungle, Loupe challenges the priestess who turns to face him. When she does not surrender, Loupe fires on her, hitting her hard but not mortally. Falling to the ground he sees that it is indeed Prakti who calls out to the gathered natives who stand stunned as Singh Hartha and Marcus rush in, dispatching the hulking guard with a few keen strokes of their blades. Prakti, despite her ire, relents under the threats of Loupe and the other heroes.

As the heroes go about regrouping and taking Prakti into custody they hear rustling and other activity coming through the jungle toward the ritual space. Bracing themselves for another possible attack, they are relieved to see Dr. Pemmingham and his armed native workers blustering to the rescue.

In the end this was a fun adventure. The heroes prevailed through mystery and direct threat. Most of the possible combat was avoided by the quick thinking of the players, which I do not mind. Not all pulp has to come at you guns-a-blazing. The villain was not killed but instead was turned over to the local authorities by the heroes when they returned to civilization.

A great time was had by all and I have to admit to a bit of a blush at the raving accolades given the game by Chuck who usually doesn't all that much enjoy being a player in RPGs. I can't wait for the next game and am already working on several other possible adventures .

Enjoy!

-Eli

Happy Gamer Moment #573

2011-05-13T15:59:00.000-07:00

So, my 11-yr old daughter and I are chatting and she brings up something cool she found in the back of the advanced rules for Labyrinth Lord. She's talking about the random tavern dwellers charts that are there. So, I am interested. This means she's been looking it over for herself, on her own time and not in direct connection with any game we are running. So, I ask her what about it?

Anna goes on to explain that ever since she found those charts, she has been rolling up one tavern dweller every night before she goes to bed and recording them in her campaign notebook so she has a ready collection of folks to have in her taverns and inns.

Awesome!

She's going to be a great DM.

-Eli

Cool Spaceport Terrain Projects

2011-05-10T18:45:00.000-07:00

One of my bigtime dreams is to be able to create a spaceport for my sci-fi miniatures gaming. I've been collecting styro packing and interesting bits for years in hopes that someday I'll be able to have enough materials and time to build a tabletop full of terrain. So far, I've barely scratched the surface on this with only a couple bits here and there and a few aborted attempts. But there are those who have dived on this sort of thing and produced some awesome stuff.

Today's post is not about my stuff, but a shout out to the awesome work being done by a couple of other bloggers.

First off is Nathan miller of Nathan "Ironworker" Miller's Miniature Games. Nathan has an absolutely awesome collection of 28mm starships for his equally awesome starport terrain. He's collected all sorts of food containers, toy bits and scratch built stuff into a grimy, gritty starport. His spaceships are a collection of toys and models with slight mods and clever paint jobs to make them fit in with his 28mm figures.

Another starport modeller is Chris from Chris' Miniature Woes. Chris has just started with his project, also in 28mm. He's found some cool forklifts for cheap and also has come up with a cool tow rig. Looking forward to seeing where this project goes.

This is some really inspiring stuff and seriously makes me want to sideline my other projects to work on something similar in 15mm. I won't of course - I'm already behind enough - but it's tempting. these guys are putting together some good stuff and not just their starport terrain. Check them out.

Have fun!

-Eli

Episodic D&D Campaign - Episode 1

2011-05-08T20:43:00.000-07:00

Saturday night saw the kickoff of Chuck's episodic pseudo 3.5 D&D campaign. What does all that mean?

Well, Chuck wanted to run something lighter than 3.5 but not quite old school. His unique character generation had given us all a mix of skills, and some basic class/career abilities but nothing like a true D&D class. I, for example, was a Novice. A sort of proto-cleric, I had knowledge skills and a good ability at healing through craft rather than magic. Other characters had natural fighting talent or movement skills like sneak and such.

Anyhow, as our character were all still youngsters aged 13-16, our first foray into adventure was really a single large, involved situation. We were on our way to the county fair and came across the ravaged remains of one of our village caravans. We followed the clues to a nearby ruin that we all knew from our childhood where we discovered the survivors of the caravan and the goods it had been carrying being held by bandits.

The encounter went on with us discussing various ways to get the drop on the bandits or to spread out their numbers. My character and the Adept (proto-wizard) in the group went to explore the ruins some and discovered that there were more capable, threatening people in there up to no good. The Adept went off to reconnect with the rest of the group and left me with a small keg of pitch and a flint and steel ready to block the entrance to the ruins if needed.

In the end, I lit the pitch and ran and the rest of the party surprised the villains by bum-rushing them. We were hopelessly outclassed by them, that much was obvious, and so it was either be chased down by their dogs or make a fight of it. I hid and watched as several streaks of dice luck rendered the villains to bloody messes. One villain was pushed into a brackish pool where he was devoured by some hidden but waiting menace.

The final nail in the coffin of the bandits' resolve was one of our party calling out, "That's it, come and get them boys! We've found them!" The bandits were convinced they had been found and attacked by the county levy and fled, terrified, into the surrounding forest. We had won the day and had our first, childhood tastes of adventure.

The next episode will revisit our character at 5th-level.

Stay tuned,

-Eli

Miniatures Ready For Sale!

2011-05-06T10:02:00.000-07:00

So, the project has finally come full circle. The Uhul, the first figures I ever sculpted, were picked up by 15mm.co.uk and are now available for purchase. I love the paint job they gave them. They really captured the look of owls.

Also coming soon from 15mm.co.uk are four alien civilians that I sculpted. These four figures represent various non-combatants to add to your starport or alien colony. Though they have been deigned with specific themes in mind, they are generic enough to represent really any civilian role.

This has been fun and I look forward to getting more out there.

-Eli

"Do You Speak Common?"Interpretting Common Language in RPGs

2011-05-04T21:57:00.000-07:00

Just about every role-playing game has some form of common language. This is generally done for the convenience of the game and in many cases, such as D&D doesn't even veil it with any sort of thematic guise. But are common languages really a cheat? For me this is a yes and a no.

The real world is and has been full of them in the past and present. Known as pidgins or jargon, these languages usually take the form of simplified versions of language, often combining words from several distinct languages to form a medium by which people of different languages can communicate. North America alone was home to dozens of jargon. One of my favorite words, "skookum" comes from the local Chinook jargon.

Common tongues have not and do not necessarily have to be simplified languages. In many cases they are root languages or languages of status that are used by a culture at large to communicate across national boundaries in a way to bind people together or to lord over them. Latin is an example of such a language, having been used by the Romans to bind their empire together under one common cultural umbrella. No matter what province you were from, if you spoke Latin, you knew you were part of a greater empire and would likely find somebody you could talk to no matter where you went.

Today, we see the same thing happening with English and Spanish. Both languages have spread far and wide because of the early colonial efforts of their parent cultures. In more modern times they continue to be used as common tongue and even trade languages because so many people have bothered to or naturally speak them.

In an RPG setting where you usually have so many languages about it makes perfect sense, from a game design standpoint, to have some sort of common tongue. This can be making things too easy for your adventurers and the presence of a common tongue can very quickly invalidate the need for those languages in the first place, but a lot of the power of common tongues comes from how they are used or abused.

Common tongues do not have to be all encompassing. Just like the dozens of jargon and pidgins found in North American native culture, RPG commons can have a regional basis. A jargon in the west of a campaign setting may not be used in the south or the highlands or the coastal regions, etc.. Travellers crossing between regions may find their common tongue of limited use or even useless.

Another way to handle common tongue is not to have a common tongue at all but to groups languages into linguistic families, much like we have in our own world. Individual nations or cultures may have their own specific dialects or distinct languages within these linguistic groups, but people of a common linguistic group may find some common ground for communication in the basic roots and common sounds and ideas within their particular group. To use the above example, the people of the west may all speak one form or another of a language even though there are at least five distinct nations there. Those along the coast speak another language distinct from the western people and the highlanders have their own strange language with a dozen dialects depending on what valley you hail from.

This can also be done with non-human languages. Tolkien had Black Speak, the language that all of the evil creatures of Mordor seemed to share. In my own games, I have the goblin tongue, which is a common name given to the language group that most humanoids speak. Different tribes and regional groups may speak variations, but they share the same root. Elves in my games are treated similarly with sylvan elves having a more rustic dialect than the high elves which is still removed from their original tongue spoken only by a very small group of elves living in the elven homeland.

Mechanically speaking, a GM may have to tweak the language system of whatever rules set he is using to allow for the increased variety in languages and players will have to work a little harder to keep track of their languages. The end result can be quite interesting though, as local color and dialectal differences may cause some trouble for the unsuspecting adventurer. A deal made by an orc of the Brackish Pool may not hold as much water when interpreted by his cousins of the Rabid Weasel clan.

Make sure you check your tense when conjugating your trollish verbs and don't forget that there is no gender tense in southern Drakkish like there is in the other Drakkish nation.

Take care,

-Eli

More Bouncing Ideas

2011-05-04T14:07:00.000-07:00

If you liked my post yesterday (and I hope you did), then you will enjoy this discourse. Otherwise, you probably won't. I love simple logic like that.

Oh, and anything in brackets is my own addition, usually a further thought I have had while putting this post together, or a clarification of what is going on from previous posts if you missed out on them.

So, building on yesterday's ideas...

ME: Can't you just see the disciplined legions marching forward, and the indians in a horde of skirmishers, loosing arrows and javelins and then running off... For my money, the legions walk over them. Easily. You could fight out the battles in Fields of Glory. I don't see the native light infantry standing up to Roman heavy infantry. Push the warriors out of the way, burn the towns, enslave the captives, and breed a new generation of Romans.

ELI: In an open fight, the Legions would do well, but the natives could easily pick them off, bide their time, pull a Tutelberger an ambush them on the march. The biggest issue I can see is replacements and supplies. Foraging is okay, when you know the plants and the animals. Replacement metal for reparing weapons and armor might be difficult but it's also unlikely that their equipment would suffer much more than dents from stones and the occasional nicks in blades from hitting bones or terrain. Fortunately the Romans were wordly enough that they had no real hesitation in mixing with other cultures. The Lost Legion would likely use locals as auxilia as well as support staff. Native guides would be recruited to educate the legion i n the new land. Roman's weren't stupid and I'm sure any commander with a little political sense (most of them did) would use a little savvy in dealing with the locals in the immediate area.

ME: Don't forget that the conquistadores, who had essentially the same equipment (well, except for the arquebus, which was of dubious assistance) whipped much larger native forces. Metal armor is a massive advantage. Oh, and a typical legion also had an artillery train of about 60 ballistae and onagers. [And about 600 artillerists].

ELI: Alright, how do we get them [the Romans] there [North America]? The best theories are, in order of historical likelihood -

Legion Lost - A flotilla bound for Britain is blown off course and ends up having to eek its way along the coast of Greenland and into america, effectively following Erikson's route.
Exiles - Exiled from the Empire a Roman leader takes himself and his loyalists across the sea.
Western Expansion - Rome decides to expand beyond the western ocean following tales of strange new lands.

ME: I like the Lost Legion, personally. I always like a good lost legion.

ELI: Would a Lost Legion be a sustainable Roman population?

ME: Figure about 1,000 men for a late Imperial period legion. Add in crew from the ships, perhaps another 200 men [total guess there]. Auxiliaries, camp followers, etc. - maybe another 1,000 total [actually, probably closer to 2,000]. I think they could establish themselves quite securely. Follow the old scheme of "conquer and absorb the natives" by giving citizenship to the nobles of the tribes conquered in exchange for their cooperation in the system. Marry natives and start breeding yourself more Romans. They might not be Latins, but they'd be Romans.

ELI: A full Legion is like 4000+ men. I imagine support personnel would move with them, though the Legions tended to be their own support.

ME: Depends on the era. Later empire legions were much smaller than Republican legions.

ELI: The Lost Legion is certainly romantic but it does invite some problems in the whole chain of logic. It actually requires more "bending" than it would to justify a planned expidition. Any Legion blown off course and deposited in the New World would be relatively depleted in numbers and bereft of supplies and equipment. Perhaps it is easier to justify a planned expedition blown off course. They would still have legionary support, but with more resources.

ME: A move to, say, conquer Hibernia (Ireland)? [And colonize, naturally!]

And so ends this afternoon's episode of "Occidentally Roman," brought to you by the generous support of Kalva Soap, and viewers like you. (Bonus points if you know the book Kalva Soap appears in. Hint: Tim Hamner owns it.)

How We Do It.

2011-05-03T13:23:00.000-07:00

I am often stopped on the street by the curious public. They recognize me, of course, as a famous blogger and wargamer. Anyway, the first question I usually get (after exclamations of how yuoung and handsome I am, for someone so knowledgeable about, well, everything) is "How do you and your assistants come up with all of those creative ideas?" It is especailly embarassing when young, attractive females approach me publicly - my wife is not amused.

In order to save time, I have decided to share with all of my adoring public the secret to our process. I'll track a new idea that Eli and I are working on currently. I call it the bouncing ball theory of development. It starts with an email from one of us to the other:

Eli: "The United States as a 14th-15thC feudal states... Rome cross the Atlantic in it's Prime and establishes colonies on the American continent. When Rome falls, you are left with a very different medieval America."

Me: "Interesting."

Eli: "I imagine you could go with the whole Rome gets ancient Chinese ship building technology and is able to cross the Atlantic with sufficient numbers and support to gain a foothold. The rest is built from there."

Me: "The Occidental Provinces, or Transoceania?"

Eli: "Interesting to think that the Vikings might come to America and find the descendants of the Roman colonies there, living in their own fragment of the Empire."

Me: "So a Viceroy for the Emperor of Rome ruling in Dark Ages America, with connection to Roma Mater severed for centuries."

Eli: "Or the Americas broken down into post-Roman warlord kingdoms. Another way to go would be for the Viceroy to have decided that no new news from Rome means that it must be done entirely and he renames himself Emperor of the only remaining portion of the Empire. 'Rome is dead....WE are Rome!'"

Eli: "Roman America would make a great RPG setting. Think about a Roman version of the Lewis and Clark expedition?"

Me: "Tribune Marius Agrippa Lewix (a Gallic Roman descendant) and Marcus Brutus Clarkus lead the XIIth Legio across Occidentalis to the Mare Pacifica, slaughtering numerous tribes of the red-skinned barbarians as they traveled. A slave girl, Sacagawea, acted as interpreter and guide through the newly discovered territory. Her assistance in crossing the mountains was invaluable, and in return, she was awarded citizenship and enrolled in a plebeian family."

Eli: "Works for me. Would the Romans call all Occidental tribes by their tribal names or collectively like they did the Gauls, Germans and Britains?"

Me: "Probably just one generic name. I don't know what it would be. My Latin isn't that good, sadly. I may have to figure out "red man" in Latin."

Eli: "I am trying to find a map with Indian place names for the eastern US."

Eli: Place names might be given out much as they were by later Europeans as a combination of Latin and Latinized versions of local names. Apalacia, for example was named after a local people. Manhattan is named after the local native name for it which really just means "island". Don't Latinized people names often have an "i" added at the end?"

Me: "Massachusetts as well, and Mississippi, and Illinois, Lake Huron, Ohio, Miami, Kentucky, Tennessee - all native names that were Anglicized. I think you would be correct in saying adding the terminal "-i" makes it plural, so it would indicate the tribe as a whole, as opposed to a single member of the tribe."

For the record, this conversation has taken place over the course of the last two days. It is still an idea very much under development. Anyone stealing it will be sued until his britches are our britches. Then I send my good friends Guido and Salvatore to have a little 'talk' with them.

Space: 1889 Resurrected!

2011-05-02T13:34:00.000-07:00

As the resident VSF-fanatic, I have some very exciting news to share, and a new(ish) blog by the game's creator, Frank Chadwick. The blog, appropriately called Frank Chadwicks Space: 1889.

The newest information is that a new line of 15mm (YES!) Space: 1889 minis will be produced by Highlander Studios, headed up by Rodrick Campbell, who has done work for Rebel Minis and Khurasan Miniatures among others. Also, some 1:1200 scale vessels will be produced as well.

If you're not stoked by this, well, you don't love VSF.

Nominated Thrice

2011-04-30T08:32:00.000-07:00

Trying not to take this too seriously, but I feel obligated to at least to at least show my appreciation. Meatball over at My Dice Hate Me! nominated me in his list of blogs for the Sylish Blogger. Meatball runs a tight blog with lots of nice eye candy. Warhammer in both 40K and Fantasy flavors as well as Privateer Press games make appearances there.

Thanks Meatball!

-Eli

I'm a Novice

2011-04-29T16:57:00.000-07:00

So, the DM has scored my survey and the tally is in. Chuck's system uses answers to questions to determine attribute points, alignment, even skills and total "willpower points" which work like any number of fate point style systems.

After the final tally, I ended up with attribute points and skills most suitable for an Novice. I don't have to follow this path, but to follow another path might put me at a disadvantage. I ended up with 8 Willpower Points, the most of any player so far. The next down from me has 7. Evidently he even had four triggers built into the questionnaire that would trigger the Paladin class if you scored on all four. I missed Paladin by 1.

This character generation system was very interesting and I wish there was more of mechanic to it than the personal logic that the DM had programmed into it. I am sure that with some refinement, a formula could be created out of this to allow you to plug in details from whatever potential system you were going to use.

An added bonus to this system was that the questions were loaded with setting specific details such as holidays, cultural references and general setting details that helped you learn the world as you were answering the questions. Even though Chuck provided two pages of background briefing, I felt I had a better idea of the daily life of the setting after completing the survey.

A great idea, that promises to be the kickoff to a unique and entertaining game.

-Eli

Possible Upcoming D&D Campaign

2011-04-28T19:51:00.000-07:00

So, my buddy Chuck has been working on something "top secret" for a bit and I just found out what it is, yesterday. It's a D&D campaign. Chuck's a great guy and a real gamer with a brain full of good ideas and an intellect to back them up. All that being said, I was not prepared for what he had left for me in prep for the game.

I got home to find out that he had dropped off a campaign packet with my wife. Inside this packet was quite a bit of stuff. Thoughtfully laid out, well written and in-depth it included -

A cover letter
2 pages of brief history
One page of character assignments
10 page, 51 question "Character Generation Survey"
Local Map

A daunting bit of work to be sure and way more than I have ever done up front on a campaign. In the packet, I found that I am to play a young shepherd's son. The campaign is supposed to be episodic, visiting the characters at levels 1, 5, 10, 14, and 20. In short, this will be a sort of quickstep through the lives of these adventurers instead of going level by level.

I must say that I'm intrigued by this approach. I've never run into something like this before in RPGs. I've done linked one-offs, episodic campaigns, and loose serial style games but never this sort of days in the lives sort of style. Having never played in an RPG with Chuck before I have no predispositions or apprehensions other than with some of the other players who i have also never gamed RPGs with.

Should be exciting.

-Eli

Primaeval Designs Releases 15mm Dinosaurs and Other Prehistorics

2011-04-28T10:40:00.000-07:00

A quick news bit off the Primaeval Designs Facebook page...

Good news for the 15mm collectors. Lambeosaurus ($14.00) and Protoceratops ($6.00 for 8) are currently available on the Acheson site. By the end of this week the Neanderthals, Woolly Mammoth, Steppe Mammoth, Woolly Rhino and T-Rex should also be available. We will update you the moment we get the codes and prices.

You all know I'm a bit fan of the fine work that the partnership between Craig and Richard is producing. Rich's sculpting of these enigmatic beasts is top notch and Craig's production of the designs is wonderful. for a look at images of models available, visit the Acheson Creation website or the galleries at the Primaeval Designs Facebook page.

-Eli